Ries

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RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 1 - Opp. 11, 45
Kagan, Susan, piano
Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 11, No. 2
1. I. Largo con espressione - Allegro agitato 0:09:23
2. II. Larghetto 0:04:36
3. III. Allegro 0:05:35
Piano Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 11, No. 1 0:01:31
4. I. Allegro moderato 0:10:09
5. II. Andante 0:04:40
6. III. Theme and 6 Variations: Allegretto moderato 0:06:54
Piano Sonata in A Minor, Op. 45
8. II. Allegretto scherzando 0:03:40
Total Playing Time: 0:49:40

Kagan, Susan, piano
Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. 1, No. 1
1. I. Allegro con brio 0:10:58
2. II. Adagio ma non tanto 0:06:16
3. III. Minuet and Trio: Moderato 0:03:25
4. IV. Rondo: Allegretto quasi allegro 0:09:36
Piano Sonata in A Minor, Op. 1, No. 2
5. I. Allegro molto 0:06:47
6. II. Andante quasi allegretto scherzando 0:06:28
7. III. Finale: Allegro 0:08:04
Piano Sonatina in B-Flat Major, Op. 5, No. 1
8. I. Allegro ma non troppo 0:05:37
9. II. Andantino 0:02:06
10. III. Rondo: Allegretto 0:04:00
Piano Sonatina in F Major, Op. 5, No. 2
11. I. Allegro non troppo 0:03:32
12. II. Andantino 0:03:16
13. III. Rondo: Allegretto vivace 0:03:22
RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 3 - Op. 9, No. 2 and Op.
26, "L'infortunee" / The Dream, Op. 49
Kagan, Susan, piano
Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. 9, No. 2
1. I. Andantino 0:05:13
2. II. Allegro molto vivace 0:03:15
3. III. Adagio con moto 0:04:02
4. IV. Allegro 0:06:13
Piano Sonata in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 26, "L'infortunee"
5. I. Adagio con espressione - Allegro molto agitato 0:08:33
6. II. Andante 0:03:24
7. III. Presto 0:14:20
The Dream, Op. 49
8. The Dream, Op. 49 0:18:50
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RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 4 - Op. 9, No. 1 and Op.
141
Kagan, Susan, piano
Piano Sonata in D Major, Op. 9, No. 1
1. I. Allegro 0:10:42
2. II. Tempo di menuetto ma molto moderato 0:06:49
3. III. Theme con variazioni: Allegretto 0:12:35
Piano Sonata in A-Flat Major, Op. 141
4. I. Allegro 0:14:30
5. II. Adagio con moto 0:06:09
6. III. Allegro 0:07:54
RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 5 - Opp. 114, 176, WoO
11
Kagan, Susan, piano
Piano Sonata in A Major, Op. 114
1. I. Andantino cantabile 0:05:34
2. II. Scherzo: Allegretto 0:04:08
3. III. Allegro quasi presto 0:03:36
Piano Sonata in A-Flat Major, Op. 176
4. I. Allegro non troppo 0:10:01
5. II. Larghetto quasi andante 0:06:08
6. III. Scherzo: Allegretto 0:04:38
7. IV. Finale: Allegro 0:05:34
Piano Sonata in B Minor, WoO 11
8. I. Largo molto et appassionato 0:08:07
9. II. Adagio 0:06:59
10. III. Allegro agitato 0:06:53
RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 6 - Opp. 6, 47, 160
(Piano Duet)
Kagan, Susan, piano
Primakov, Vassily, piano
Sonata for Piano 4 Hands in C Major, Op. 6, "Sonatina"
1. I. Allegretto 0:01:48
2. II. Marche 0:01:15
3. III. Andante 0:01:01
4. IV. Rondino: Allegretto 0:03:42
Sonata for Piano 4 Hands in B-Flat Major, Op. 47
6. II. Larghetto cantabile 0:02:05
7. III. Rondo: Allegretto 0:04:20
Sonata for Piano 4 Hands in A Major, Op. 160
8. I. Allegro con spirito 0:16:25
9. II. Adagio con espressione 0:08:49
10. III. Finale: Allegro 0:08:19
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Rediscovering Ferdinand Ries by Susan Kagan

December 19, 2010
Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838) is one of many talented composers who enjoyed

a fine career, but whose achievements after death were largely forgotten
because of Beethoven’s overpowering presence in 19th-century music. I was
familiar with Ries in his role of early biographer of Beethoven (he and
another childhood friend from Bonn, Franz Wegeler, published a volume of
reminiscences of Beethoven in 1838), but came to know his music only in
the last decade, when I recorded his fantasy, The Dream, as part of a
recording project called “Beethoven and His Pupils.” Much of Ries’s music—
symphonies, string quartets and other chamber music, and piano
Ferdinand Ries concertos—is now becoming known through recordings.
But my involvement with the piano sonatas began in 2004, when I was asked
by a Dutch record company if I would be interested in recording Ries’s first
two piano sonatas, Op. 1. Would I indeed! Upon obtaining copies of the
original edition from the Library of Congress, I studied them and was
astonished at the originality of their melodic ideas, harmonic language, and
keyboard writing. I recorded the two sonatas some months later, and began
to search out his other piano music. Fortuitously, I learned about an American
musicologist, Dr. Kathleen Lamkin, whose dissertation was a study of Ries’s
solo piano sonatas. None of it was in print; she had obtained copies of the
original editions of the sonatas from various European archives for her study,
Susan Kagan and generously made duplicate copies for me. My fascination with and love
for the music grew deeper as I learned the twelve new sonatas, and I was astonished that only two of
them had been recorded. Over the next two years I recorded all fourteen of them, having obtained the
interest of Naxos Records, which had embarked at the same time on a recording project of Ries’s
complete piano concertos.
Ries was educated musically at the height of the Classical period; in Vienna, he studied piano with
Beethoven (both were natives of Bonn, Germany) and was entrusted by him with such work as making
transcriptions and piano arrangements, and copying orchestral parts of Beethoven’s new works. Ries
moved to England in 1813, married an Englishwoman, and had a successful career touring as a virtuoso
concert pianist. At the same time he was composing prodigiously and virtually everything he wrote was
published. His thorough knowledge of Beethoven’s music undoubtedly helped shape Ries’s style, but his
piano sonatas, from 1809 on, show an adventurous turn toward an expressive keyboard style
anticipating that of the first generation of Romantic piano composers—Mendelssohn, Chopin, and
Schumann. His gift for melody is like Schubert’s, and he is ever inventive in creating and developing
beautiful themes. While his symphonies and concertos are “public” works, intended for large audiences
and concert halls, the piano sonatas are his most personally expressive works, revealing an individual
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outlook on a genre of music cultivated by that great triumvirate of the Classical period—Haydn, Mozart,
and Beethoven.
Like so many other composers of that period (and throughout the 19th century), Ries developed under
the shadow of Beethoven. (It was widely reported that Beethoven remarked of Ries, “He imitates me too
much.” The source of that unkind remark was an associate of Beethoven who later was shown to have
destroyed correspondence and falsified documents in order to aggrandize his position in Beethoven’s life,
and was proven to be completely untrustworthy.) Still, that story did some lasting damage to Ries’s
career. Even while there are highly individual aspects to his music, there are moments which suddenly
remind us of Beethoven. Yet fundamentally Ries remains his own man: aside from fleeting moments of
similarity in the shape of a melody, or a striking harmonic turn, there is only a superficial resemblance to
Beethoven. After publication of the Opus 1 sonatas in 1806, Ries’s style strikes out boldly in new
directions: the entire range of the keyboard is exploited, dynamic contrasts are more extreme, and
unlike Beethoven, who became more and more obsessed with contrapuntal procedures in his late music,
Ries remained, as always, more concerned with singing melodies and accompaniments. He is truly a
“cross-over” composer, successfully bridging the styles of the Classical and Romantic periods. An
excellent example of this is his Sonata in F# Minor, Op. 26, titled L’Infortunée, composed around 1810-
11 when Ries was living in Paris, frustrated and unhappy over his rejection by the French public. This
sonata, vividly emotional and tempestuous, expresses intense feelings and drama, although organized in
classical forms. Could this “unfortunate one” be a self-portrait? Quite likely, I think.
In later years, Ries’s Romantic tendencies came to dominate his music. It was the end of the Classical
era, and new audiences were drawn to the more colorfully brilliant and emotionally demonstrative style
of the Romantics. Ries evidently felt quite comfortable with this trend, and composed music that fit the
new molds: brilliant variation sets on opera arias and popular airs, fantasies, and dance forms such as
the polonaise. While this music is showier and more demanding technically, it is not beyond the abilities
of most trained pianists. There are passages requiring a facile piano technique, but none could be called
unplayable.
Among the solo sonatas and sonatinas, there are a few that are very attractive because of their
originality and expressive content. Among my favorites is the Sonata Op. 26, described above; another is
a sonatina—in A Minor, Op. 45—a poignantly expressive two-movement work. I might mention also The
Dream, Op. 49—an eighteen-minute combination of fantasy and sonata, where an unstated “program”
underlies the various sections of the work. But it becomes almost impossible to pick and choose favorites
among these fourteen attractive works.
Finally, after more than two centuries of near oblivion, Ferdinand Ries is finding a rightful place in the
history of music.
Ferdinand Ries Biography & Discography
Susan Kagan Biography & Discography

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Susan Kagan, piano
Introduction (from:
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.570796)
Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven’s friend and pupil, was an exceptionally gifted composer in whose strangely
prophetic piano sonatas one encounters Schubert’s poignant harmonic language, Mendelssohn’s
expressive, sweet melodies and Chopin’s brilliant figuration. This recording features the magisterial
Sonatas, Op.11 (Paris 1807-08) and the lovely Sonatina in A minor, Op.45 which was composed during
Ries’s eventful concert tour in Russia during 1811-12.
Ferdinand Ries is known mainly through his connection with Beethoven, as his family friend, piano
student, and early biographer. Ries’s connections with Beethoven began in Bonn and continued in
Vienna, and later in London. Born in 1784, when Beethoven was fourteen, Ferdinand was the son of
Franz Ries, violinist in the Electoral Court orchestra, who taught Beethoven the violin and befriended his
family during Beethoven’s youth. Largely self-taught, Ferdinand first studied in Munich, but around 1803
he went to Vienna to study the piano with Beethoven, who sent him to the noted theorist-composer
Johann Albrechtsberger for composition lessons. Ries was probably Beethoven’s closest friend during this
period, carrying out all kinds of musical and secretarial tasks for him, copying parts, making
transcriptions and arrangements, proof-reading and seeing to publications. Later, after years of touring
as a concert pianist and a short stay in Paris, Ries settled in London and married an Englishwoman. Even
then he continued to act on Beethoven’s behalf.
Ries was a gifted and prolific composer in every instrumental genre, whose works, like those of so many
composers of the time, were largely overshadowed by Beethoven’s huge presence. Still, in his lifetime
his music was published and widely known to the music-loving public. A brilliant pianist, Ries made his
début in Vienna in 1804, playing Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. He toured for many years throughout
Europe, including Russia, to great acclaim, and was made a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Music. In his lifetime virtually everything he composed was published, and often issued again by different
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publishers, attesting to his popularity. Eventually in 1824 he and his family left England and lived in Bad
Godesburg near his home town in the Rhineland until finally settling in 1830 in Frankfurt am Main, where
he conducted and continued to compose until his death.
Ries began composing his piano sonatas at a time when the genre was undergoing significant changes.
His models were those of the great classicists, C. P. E. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and early Beethoven, who
had perfected the sonata “ideal”. Later he was influenced by new trends in sonatas of Beethoven,
Clementi, Hummel, and others. Ries was a master of the prevailing classical forms, sonata form, ABA
(song) form, rondo, and variations, and that mastery, as well as striking originality, can be seen in all his
compositions. What is most remarkable, however, is Ries’s anticipation of the style of the great piano
composers of the early Romantic period, of Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Chopin, who were not yet born
or still young children when he was at the peak of his piano sonata composition, from about 1805 to
1818. Schubert’s poignant harmonic language, Mendelssohn’s expressive, sweet melodies, Chopin’s
brilliant figuration, all of these features figure in Ries’s piano writing in his sonatas, well ahead of their
full flowering in the Romantic period after 1830. His last two sonatas, composed in 1826 and 1832,
reflect the change to a showy style more appealing to public taste.
Robert Schumann, reviewing a work by Ries in 1835 in his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, noted his
“remarkable originality”. Like Schubert he had an abundance of lyrical melodic ideas in constant flow.
This is borne out in his many sonata-form movements, where the first theme, the second, and the
closing theme are each distinctive, and ingeniously developed. Among significant characteristics of Ries’s
style, many of which were to become hallmarks of the language of Romanticism, are dramatic dynamic
contrasts, abrupt changes in tempo and mood, harmonic shifts, fluent ornate figuration, wide stretches
and leaps, and radical use of the sustaining pedal to blur harmonies.
The publication of the two Sonatas, Op. 11, No. 1 in E flat major and No. 2 in F minor, was announced in
1816, but both had been composed earlier, around the years 1807- 08, while Ries was living in Paris.
Both exhibit many of the Romantic traits above.
The first movement of the Sonata in E flat, in sonata form and marked Allegro moderato, unfolds
serenely. The lyrical A flat slow movement (Andante) sustains the mood of the first; its opening section
is repeated twice, each time with a florid embellishment of the right-hand theme. The finale, a set of
variations on a Russian melody, was used again in Ries’s variations for piano duet (Op. 14). The theme is
folk-like, marked by off-beat accents, with a heavy bass accompaniment. The seven variations that
follow are typically a mix of virtuoso and lyrical styles with inventive figuration, capped by a brilliant little
coda.
The second Sonata in F minor contrasts markedly with the first in emotional impact. The first movement
opens with a slow sombre introduction in D flat major, ending with a brief melodic figure that serves as a
motif on which the melodic material of the entire movement is built. The main section of the F minor
Allegro is impassioned and intense, its theme rising dramatically in little bursts. A second theme, in A flat
major, is lyrical, as is a closing theme; but the character of the movement is one of impulsive, soaring
romantic energy and brilliance. The lovely slow movement, in F major, is in complete contrast, with
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lyrical themes and a serene mood. The finale is a whirlwind of motion, a tarantella in moto perpetuo,
with rapid triplet figuration. In the development section of the movement there is a rare example (for
Ries) of a fugal section, followed by a recapitulation of the main theme and a short coda, in which the
motion continues breathlessly through the last measure, vanishing quietly into thin air.
The Sonatina in A minor, Op. 45, was probably composed while Ries was on tour in Russia in 1811-12.
The title page of the first edition, published by Clementi in 1817, clearly declares it “Sonata for the
Pianoforte”. Comprising two movements only, it is smaller in scope than the other sonatas. The first
movement, a miniature sonata form, is tinged with a kind of expressive melancholy, perhaps owing to
the descending minor second that dominates the main theme. The second movement is a jaunty, dance-
like rondo in A major, with a contrasting central section in D minor. Small in scope, perhaps, but both
movements of this sonata illustrate perfectly Ries’s masterful handling of form.
Susan Kagan
Reviews
Laima
WRUV Reviews, August 2010
The prolific composer Ferdinand Ries, friend of Beethoven, was also overlooked because of Beethoven’s
success. These pieces show the trends that the sonata was experiencing and reveal influences of other
composers, including Beethoven.
Colin Clarke
MusicWeb International, March 2009
Susan Kagan is a pianist and critic (Fanfare) whose credits include recordings with the great violinist
Josef Suk. Her Ph.D. dissertation focused on the music of Archduke Rudolph. She co-edited the scores of
the present works with Allan Badley (available on Artaria Editions). Kagan also provides the
knowledgeable booklet notes here.
The Op. 11 Sonatas were written when Ries was living in Paris—they were not published until 1816. Ries’
music sits somewhere in between Beethoven and the early Romantics. In the first movement of the first
sonata we hear, Op. 11/2, there are some very proto-Schubertian spread chords early on, but the unrest
of the development section clearly comes from a Beethovenian direction. The central Larghetto is
expressive and lends itself to ever more elaborate embellishment. Kagan is superb at the decorations but
seems less convincing in the simpler opening. This movement actually reveals depths one might not
expect from this composer. The finale is along the lines of a tarantella, with its typical unwillingness to
slow down and draw breath. The Sonata op. 11/1, which follows in the playing order, boasts a calm first
movement that speaks more of breadth than of drama. Kagan is in her element here—she is a musical,
gentle player—just as she is in the delicacy of the central Andante which has just the right amount of
forward movement to it. The finale is a set of variations on a Russian melody. It’s a melody used again in
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Ries’ Variations, Op. 14, for piano duet. Kagan gives it a peasant-like tinge on its first appearance. The
likeable variations take in the pleasantly spiky as well as elements of mild comedy.
The disc is rounded off by a two-movement Sonatina. This was actually originally published, by Clementi,
under the title of “Sonata”. It was composed while Ries was touring Russia in 1811/12. Its whole
demeanour is small-scale, and appealingly so. There is an all-pervading melancholy to the first
movement, though, balanced by the deliberately naïve nature of the Allegretto scherzando finale.
The recording is well rounded and fine without being out of the absolute top drawer. The upper-mid to
upper registers are a little on edge. This is the beginning of what will clearly be a delightful, and useful,
series.
The Classicsonline download “extra” of this particular release is the finale of Hummel’s Piano Sonata No.
9 in C.
Jerry Dubins
Fanfare, January 2009
By all rights, Susan Kagan should be reviewing this CD; but then that would pose a serious conflict of
interest, given that she is the performing artist…for she has become not only a champion of Ferdinand
Ries but also a foremost authority on his music; and for the Naxos label she has embarked on a project
to record the composer’s complete keyboard œuvre. This is Volume 1.
Ries (1784–1838) is often unfairly judged as little more than Beethoven’s amanuensis and gofer. In
exchange, Beethoven gave him piano lessons, but refused to teach him composition, a refusal Beethoven
extended to all his students. It has also been suggested that in the IQ department Ries may not have
been the brightest button in the sewing kit. Yet for all the charges that his relationship with Beethoven
stifled his own creativity and independence, Ries established himself as a successful concertizing pianist,
appeared regularly in Salomen’s Philharmonic concert series during his years in London, and wrote nine
piano concertos, eight symphonies, and a considerable volume of chamber music, including over two-
dozen string quartets. Late in life, (1837) living with his wife in Germany, he was commissioned to write
a large oratorio, Die Könige in Israel, which, more than any other of his works at least assured him
passing mention in the music history texts.
Like many of the early Romantics—Moscheles, Hummel, Kuhlau, John Field, Kalkbrenner, Wölfl, and
countless others—Ries was an offspring of the genetic struggle for influence and dominance between
father—Haydn-Mozart-Beethoven—and mother—Weber-Mendelssohn-Chopin; and, like Schubert, he was
caught right in the middle of it. It is hardly surprising then that Ries’s works should exhibit certain bipolar
characteristics.
…Kagan’s playing…reveals her dedication and commitment to this body of neglected work. These are not
technically easy pieces to play, either in terms of pure keyboard dexterity or in terms of making sense of
some of Ries’s quirky figurations and mercurial shifts of gears; yet Kagan navigates them flawlessly. I
am equally certain that interpretively she makes as strong a case for Ries as possible.
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I’m all for exploring the tributaries of music history, especially those that run parallel to the 19th-century
Romantic mainstream, even if not every one of them floats my boat. Kagan and Naxos are both to be
commended for undertaking this project, and it is to be hoped that they will be repaid by a renewed
interest in a composer whose music deserves to be heard.
Infodad.com, October 2008

The three piano works on Susan Kagan’s CD—the first in a planned series devoted to Ries’ sonatas and
sonatinas—were all written during Beethoven’s lifetime, the two sonatas around 1807-8 and the sonatina
around 1811-2. The F minor sonata is by far the most interesting work here, sounding again and again
like Beethoven’s “Pathétique” sonata, written a decade earlier. Ries’ work has drive, determination and
deep emotion, although its ending is a disappointment: it simply flies away and evaporates instead of
reaching a climax. Still, it is well constructed and definitely worth hearing. The E-flat sonata is of lesser
interest, with more serenity and less drama, although its theme-and-variations finale shows considerable
inventiveness. The two-movement Sonatina in A minor has an expressive opening movement and a
brighter second one, and comes across as something of a miniature. Kagan plays all the works with
enthusiasm, and they are certainly intriguing enough to make the prospect of additional Ries piano CDs
an appealing one.
Giv Cornfield
The New Recordings, Cliffs Classics, September 2008
The works of Beethoven's friend and erstwhile pupil Ferdinand Ries are not to be dismissed as anything
less than accomplished, even if Ludwig's shadow often looms over them. Susan Kagan brings a master's
touch and serious approach to these two lovely sonatas, elevating them to a perhaps higher plane than
they merit, but all in good taste and impeccable artistry. The sonatina is a delightful topping to this
delicious offering.
David Denton
David's Review Corner, August 2008
Franz Anton Ries taught the violin to the young Beethoven, and it was to Beethoven that he sent his son,
Ferdinand, to be his piano student. It proved a relationship that grew into a lasting friendship, Beethoven
eventually sending his protege to Johann Albrechtsberger, to be his composition mentor. From therein
Ries became a very active concert pianist touring extensively around Europe, though it was his move to
London in 1813 that changed his life. The dearth of quality musicians quickly placed him as England’s
finest pianist-composer of his time. He was to build such a personal fortune that at the age of 40 he
retired, returning with his English wife to his native Rhineland. He had composed a sizeable catalogue,
including stage works and symphonies, though it was music involving the piano that dominated his
output. Eight concertos have survived and an edition of Sonatas and Sonatinas. In reviewing an album of
his Piano Concertos last September I described them as ‘a discovery’, but the present release does not
generated such enthusiasm. Yes, you will hear a decorative style of writing that was a foretaste of
Chopin’s music yet to come, and the inspiration that had been passed down from Beethoven. But there is
a lot of academic padding that is pleasant, yet lacking the melodic invention that would place him above
that oft used description as a ‘talented kapellmeister’. In the two opus 11 sonatas he seems to be trying
too hard to create something worthy of the great composers around him. Yet turn to the opus 45
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Sonatina and there is charm, lightness and happiness. The American pianist, Susan Kagan, obviously has
an attraction to this period of music, and her playing is suitably nimble and nicely paced. Some of the
phrase endings could have been more moulded as they seem to end in mid-air, but we will wait to see
how the series unfolds before passing judgement. The recorded sound is very good.
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Susan Kagan, piano
Introduction (from: http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.570743)

Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven’s friend and pupil, was an exceptionally gifted composer whose prophetic
piano sonatas foreshadow Schubert’s poignant harmonic language, Mendelssohn’s expressively sweet
melodies and Chopin’s brilliant figuration. While the sonatas and sonatinas on this disc inevitably show
the influence of his teacher, Ries also explored the piano’s sonorities and expressive capacities in a
uniquely personal fashion and with striking originality. Volume 1, also featuring Susan Kagan, is available
on Naxos 8.570796.
he went to Vienna to study piano with Beethoven, who sent him to the noted theorist-composer Johann
Albrechtsberger for composition studies. Ries was probably Beethoven’s closest friend during this period,
carrying out all kinds of musical and secretarial tasks for him, copying parts, making transcriptions and
arrangements, proof-reading and seeing to publications. Later, after years of touring as a concert pianist
and a short stay in Paris, Ries settled in London and married an Englishwoman. Even then, he continued
to act on Beethoven’s behalf.
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publishers, attesting to his popularity. Eventually he and his family left England, settling finally in
Frankfurt am Main, where he conducted and continued to compose until his death.
His models were those of the great classicists, C.P.E. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and early Beethoven, who
Clementi, Hummel, and others. Ries was a master of the prevailing classical forms: sonata form, ABA
(song) form, rondo, and variations; and that mastery, as well as striking originality, can be seen in all his
The two Op. 1 Sonatas, published by Simrock in Bonn in 1807, bear the dedication “à Louis van
Beethoven par son élève”, and include a preface (in French) expressing Ries’s reverent appreciation of
his teacher’s kindness and friendship toward him. Sonata No. 1, actually composed after the second, is
dated, in Ries’s hand, “1806 à Bonn”.The autograph of Sonata No. 2 states “composé par F. Ries 1804”.
We can only speculate as to what, if any, input Beethoven had in their composition; he was Ries’s piano
teacher only. Still, original as these two sonatas are, the influence of Beethoven is often apparent. Within
a few short years Ries was to break away from this influence and develop the romantic style described
earlier. The sonatas were favourably reviewed by the important critic and editor Friedrich Rochlitz, who,
although finding fault with some details, praised Ries’s craftsmanship and command of form.
The first sonata, unlike the majority of Ries’s sonatas, is in four movements. The strong opening theme
of the first movement, with its dotted rhythms, leaps, double thirds and broken octaves, brings to mind
Beethoven’sOp. 2, No. 3 in the same key. The Adagio ma non tanto, in 2/4 time and the key of F, is
simple and lyrical. The Menuetto, suitably dance-like, explores the distant key of E major in the trio
section. Ries often favoursrondos for last movements, and this sonata is no exception: in 2/4 metre, it
follows a classic rondo form, A-B-A-C-A-Coda. In the C section there is a change to minor and a new
metre (6/8). The return to the rondotheme is handled ingeniously, as the 6/8 accompaniment figure in
the left hand is gradually assimilated into the 2/4 rhythm of the melody.
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The first movement of the Sonata in A minor, Op. 1, No. 2, gentle in character, fluctuates in tonality
between A minor and E minor; the closing theme of the exposition, often the place for a striking melodic
idea in Ries’s sonata-form movements, is especially lovely and wistful. The middle movement,
functioning as a combined slow movement and scherzo, is a sprightly staccato dance-like piece in F
major, in 2/4 time. The graceful finale is in sonata form, its main contrast between a flowing first theme
and a second theme dominated by triplets and staccato chords.
The composition of the two small-scale sonata works of Op. 5, entitled Fifth Sonatina and Sixth
Sonatina when published in 1823 by Clementi, probably dates from about 1806–08. They were possibly
inspired by the recent publication of Beethoven’s two sonates faciles, Op. 49; or too, Ries may also have
been responding to Rochlitz’s criticism of his Op. 1 sonatas as being “excessively difficult”. Both
sonatinas are perfect miniature exemplars of Ries’s mastery of form.
The Sonatina in B flat major, Op. 5, No. 1, could be early Mozart or Haydn. The first movement is a
perfect little sonata form; the themes, especially the closing theme of the exposition in the new dominant
key of F, are sprightly and charming. The slow movement, in E flat major, is in ABA form, and the third
movement is Ries’s favourite for finales, a rondo (ABACBA). The perky rondo theme, in 6/8 metre,
strongly resembles the finale of Beethoven’s first Violin Sonata, Op. 12, No. 1. Ries achieves dramatic
contrast in the C section of the rondo, which is in the minor. All three movements are in moderate
tempos.
The sunny innocence of the first movement of the Sonatina in F major, Op. 5, No. 2, is belied by its
second theme, in a gruff minor. The slow movement is in D minor, a small ABA form, where the B
section is a variation of A. Another rondo, folk-like and vivacious, closes the sonatina.
Small-scale these sonatinas may be, but they demonstrate Ries’s unending melodic invention, sense of
proportion, and skilful construction.
Susan Kagan
Reviews
Robert Reilly
CatholiCity, December 2010
RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 2 (Kagan) – Op. 1, 5 8.570743
RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 3 (Kagan) – Op. 9, No. 2 and Op. 26,
“L’infortunee” / The Dream, Op. 49 8.572204
RIES, F.: Piano Concertos, Vol. 4 (Hinterhuber, Grodd) – Nos. 4 and 5, “Pastoral” / Introduction and
Rondeau Brilliant 8.572088
The Naxos label has stayed true to the music of Beethoven student and biographer Ferdinand Ries
(1784–1838) by issuing volume No. 4 of his Piano Concertos (Op. 120 and Op. 115), as well as Vols. 2
and 3 of Ries’s Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (8.572204 and 8.57229), superbly played by Susan Kagan.
-Page 14 of 39-
The concertos (Naxos 8.572088) display a muscular, rugged, Beethoven-like character and are robustly
performed by pianist Christopher Hinterhuber and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, under Uwe
Grodd. Anyone interested in late Classical/early Romantic music will find these CDs fascinating.
Paul Turok
Turok’s Choice, June 2009
As predicted, Susan Kagan’s traversal of Ferdinand Ries’s piano music has uncovered valuable music, his
Sonatas Op. 1, No. 1 and Op. 1, No. 2. Dedicated to his teacher, Beethoven, these extended works are
Beethovenian both in scope and in the way Ries treats his worthy materials. Kagan plays them
powerfully, as befits this impressive music. The disc also contains the Sonatinas, Op. 5 Nos. 1 and 2.
Colin Clarke
Fanfare, May 2009
Ries was a tremendously popular composer in his lifetime. Virtually everything he wrote was published.
Famously, he was Beethoven’s piano pupil (he was under Albrechtsberger for composition), and he was
remarkable for his fusion of Beethovenian elements with foreshadowings of later composers such as
Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Chopin. Thus, proto-Schubertian elements jostle with Beethovenian
shadows in the first movement of the C-Major Sonata, op. 1/1 (the two sonatas, op. 1, were published in
Bonn in 1807). On an immediate level, there are similarities between this sonata and Beethoven’s C-
Major Sonata, op. 2/3; melodic decoration in the Adagio ma non tanto generally reflects the influence of
Beethoven’s early piano style, also. Op.1/1 is the only sonata on the disc in four movements as opposed
to three. It includes a charming Menuetto that, in a lesser performer’s hands, could degenerate into mere
teaching material. Kagan lavishes it with all the affection she can muster, though, elevating its stature
somewhat. The Rondo plays with meter (2/4 and 6/8) and is rather subdued in character.
The Second Sonata of the op. 1 set is in three movements. The minor mode immediately establishes a
contrasting mood to the preceding C-Major. There is charm, and wit aplenty in the hybrid second
movement, though, and the finale has a sort of subdued grazioso feel to it. The two sonatas actually
work well as a pair, and listening straight through is an eminently satisfying experience.
The gap in expressive intent between “sonata” and “sonatina” is immediately apparent when Kagan
launches into the slight B? Sonatina. An infinitely sweet bonbon, this Sonatina reaches back to early
Haydn. The Andantino central movement is of a controlled stateliness. Nothing here is seriously going to
disturb the general delicacy; the same goes for the companion F-Major Sonatina, despite a more
determined second theme in its first movement. The first movement of this Sonatina effectively
evaporates; out of the silence comes the charming D-Minor Andantino. And if you don’t smile at the
finale, you haven’t got a pulse.
The piano sound (Kaufman Astoria Studios, Queens, New York) is well judged without being exceptional.
What is exceptional is Kagan’s fervent, eloquent advocacy of Ries. She writes her own booklet notes, and
they exude the air of someone steeped in this music. More, she co-edited the editions used for the
sonatinas (with Allan Badley, who single-handedly edited the sonatas—www.artaria.com.
-Page 15 of 39-
Giv Cornfield
The New Recordings, Cliffs Classics, February 2009
There is a lot of attractive music in this second volume of Ries' solo piano works, with Beethoven's
influence plainly evident. Yet while Ludwig grabs one by the lapels and commands attention, Ries
manages to speak the same musical language in a more relaxed, less dramatic and at times fun-filled
manner. In Susan Kagan, this music finds a sympathetic interpreter possessed of a thorough
understanding of the style.
David Denton
David's Review Corner, January 2009
Arriving in London in 1813 from his native Germany, Ferdinand Ries became so popular as a concert
pianist and composer, that eleven years later he had amassed such a personal fortune he was able to
retire at the age of 40. His fatherhad taught violin to the young Beethoven, and it was to Beethoven that
he had sent his son as a piano student. From therein Ries became a very active concert pianist touring
extensively around Europe while composing a sizeable catalogue of works largely dominated by the
piano. Eight concertos survive together with an edition of ‘Sonatas and Sonatinas’, the former works of
considerable inspiration, though the solo keyboard scores lack the melodic invention that drives music
into your memory. The present disc contains two sonatas and two sonatines, and, as with the first
volume in the series, it is the lightweight sonatinas that give the greatest pleasure, the two worthy early
sonatas too intent on making a powerful statement in deference to Beethoven’s influence. But turn to
track 10, the Rondo finale to the first of the two opus 5 sonatinas, and you will discover music that is so
infectiously happy. The American pianist, Susan Kagan, is much in tune with Ries, her nimble fingers
getting around the fast passages with consummate ease, and I appreciate that she is making the most
out of the big gestures in the sonatas. At times there is a tendency to speed original tempos as the
movement progresses, but shows that there is a high level of spontaneity in these well recorded
performances.
-Page 16 of 39-
RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 3 - Op. 9, No. 2 and Op. 26,
"L'infortunee" / The Dream, Op. 49
Susan Kagan, piano

A virtuoso pianist, Ferdinand Ries began composing piano sonatas at a time when the genre was
undergoing significant changes from the models of Haydn and Mozart to new developments by Clementi,
Beethoven and Hummel. Ries also pre-figures Schubert’s poignant harmonic language, Mendelssohn’s
expressive sweetness and Chopin’s brilliant figurations, notably in The Dream. Opening with a stately
polonaise in rondo form, Ries’s C major Sonata concludes with a thrilling perpetuum mobile finale. In his
only named sonata, The Unfortunate, the influence of Beethoven’s Pathétique is apparent.
Johann Albrechtsberger for composition lessons. Ries was probably Beethoven’s closest friend during this
as a concert pianist and a short stay in Paris, Ries settled in London and married an Englishwoman. Even
then he continued to act on Beethoven’s behalf.
-Page 17 of 39-
Frankfurt am Main in the Rhineland, where he conducted and continued to compose until his death.
(song) form, rondo, and variations, and that mastery, as well as striking originality, can be seen in all his
Although the publication of the two sonatas of Op. 9 was announced in 1812, the composition of the
Sonata in C major, Op. 9, No. 2, dates from about 1809, when Ries went to Vienna following his unhappy
(but sonata-productive) sojourn in Paris. This sonata is somewhat unorthodox: the first movement
combines the rhythmic characteristics of a stately polonaise within a rondo form. A very fast, terse
scherzo and trio is followed by a brief slow movement in G minor, which leads without a pause into a
finale (in C major) of virtually non-stop rhythm, a perpetuum mobile, an exciting procedure often
employed by the composer.
The Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 26, ‘L’infortunée’, the only example of one given a title by the
composer, dates from about 1808 and Ries’s Paris sojourn. Because his music, adhering to the Viennese
style, had failed to win him recognition in the French city, this sonata’s title may well be self-referential,
reflecting his unhappy state of mind. Its first movement in particular is a remarkable harbinger of the
Romantic style that was to flourish two decades later. The influence of Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata,
Op. 13, is apparent in the structure of the first movement, an Adagio introduction with ambiguous
harmonies and poignant “sigh” motifs, followed by an impassioned and stormy Allegro. As in Beethoven’s
Pathétique, the Allegro is abruptly interrupted twice by shortened returns of the music of the Adagio. The
-Page 18 of 39-
lyrical, calm slow movement, Andante, is in D major. It serves as a brief contrast to the storms of the
first and third movements, leading without pause into the F sharp minor finale, marked Presto. The basic
figuration of a fast triplet accompaniment propels the music forward, with short interludes of a lyrical
second theme. It is a brilliant and effective climax to this emotionally charged work.
Ries composed the one-movement piano work The Dream, Op. 49, in London shortly after establishing
himself there in 1813, as a means of introducing himself to the English public. He published it himself in
1814, and it became an immediate success, republished with French (Le Songe) or Italian (Il Sogno)
titles. While it is more of a fantasy than a sonata, it incorporates some features of sonata style. It is a
multi-sectioned work in which each distinctive section flows almost seamlessly into the next. Although no
programme is included, its various sections suggest a programmatic narrative. Following an Introduction,
there are six sections in varying keys (related by thirds), each of a pronounced individual character:
A. Introduction: Larghetto con moto (E flat major)

B. Moderato e molto espressivo (E flat major)
C. Andantino: Dolente e tranquillo (G major)
D. Andantino con moto (B major)
E. Tempo di Marcia: Maestoso moderato – Mesto (D major)
F. Adagio (cadenza-like transition to return of B section)
G. Allegretto: Grazioso – Più vivace (E flat major)
With its Chopinesque figuration and affective harmonies, Ries’s language foreshadows that of the early
Romantic piano composers. Among the programmatic elements heard in The Dream are recitative-like
passages (Section B); a “call to arms” and military music, followed by doleful sounds of mourning
(Section E); and British characteristics such as the “Scottish snap” rhythm (Section D) and a near
quotation from Rule, Brittania (Section E). It is not difficult to imagine a story behind this dream.
Susan Kagan
Reviews
Robert Reilly
CatholiCity, December 2010
RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 2 (Kagan) – Op. 1, 5 8.570743
“L’infortunee” / The Dream, Op. 49 8.572204
RIES, F.: Piano Concertos, Vol. 4 (Hinterhuber, Grodd) – Nos. 4 and 5, “Pastoral” / Introduction and
Rondeau Brilliant 8.572088
The Naxos label has stayed true to the music of Beethoven student and biographer Ferdinand Ries
(1784–1838) by issuing volume No. 4 of his Piano Concertos (Op. 120 and Op. 115), as well as Vols. 2
and 3 of Ries’s Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (8.572204 and 8.57229), superbly played by Susan Kagan.
The concertos (Naxos 8.572088) display a muscular, rugged, Beethoven-like character and are robustly
-Page 19 of 39-
performed by pianist Christopher Hinterhuber and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, under Uwe
Grodd. Anyone interested in late Classical/early Romantic music will find these CDs fascinating.
Infodad.com, December 2010

“L’infortunee’ / The Dream, Op. 49 8.572204
RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 4 (Kagan) – Op. 9, No. 1 and Op. 141 8.572299
The sonatas by Beethoven’s sometime pupil, Ferdinand Ries, are far lesser creations than those of the
master, but Susan Kagan’s ongoing recordings of them make a strong case for them to be heard at least
occasionally. The works in both volumes 3 and 4 of Kagan’s series are unmistakably in line with those in
the first two volumes: melodically charming, strong in their forward impetus, and existing mostly on the
borderline between Classical times and Romantic. Far less challenging to play or hear than Beethoven’s
sonatas, those by Ries nevertheless have numerous moments of virtuosity and quite a few of lucidity.
And some of Ries’ piano works definitely look forward. The Dream, for example, stands out in Kagan’s
third volume as a moody tone poem—and, at nearly 19 minutes, a substantial one. It meanders like a
fantasy, its moods shifting almost capriciously, and eventually ends with a level of playfulness somewhat
out of keeping with its earlier emotional underpinnings; but taken as a whole, it is a very fine and
convincing work—and one that shows Ries exploring directions that Beethoven himself did not. On the
other hand, the same volume’s Op. 26 sonata—“The Unfortunate,” the only Ries sonata with a title—
shows the composer clearly walking in Beethoven’s footsteps: this work, dating to 1808, is very similar in
style and mood to Beethoven’s “Pathétique” sonata of 1799, of which it seems a pale reflection (although
it is written in the key of Haydn’s “Farewell” symphony). In volume 4 of the Ries series, the more
interesting work is the Op. 141 sonata, the second-to-last that Ries composed. It dates to 1826, the year
before Beethoven’s death, and was written for a piano with greater range and sonorousness than those
in use in earlier times. Here the first movement, the most successful of the three, mixes fingerings that
will remind listeners of Chopin with sections of considerable drama. The second movement is expressive
enough, but shows much of Beethoven’s influence, as do so many of Ries’ works, and therefore seems
rather derivative; while the concluding rondo, which bounces along in a bright and effective manner,
seems rather too light and buoyant for what has come before. The Ries works in Kagan’s third and fourth
volumes confirm the impression made by those in the first and second: Ries was more craftsman than
innovator, certainly a skilled pianist and fine composer for his instrument, but only rarely able to move
beyond Beethoven’s shadow to develop works stamped with his individual personality. And yet all these
rarely played sonatas have elements of interest—in some cases, quite a few of them—and are worth
hearing at least once in a while.
Paul Turok
Turok’s Choice, November 2010
Susan Kagan's fine traversal of the piano music of Ferdinand Ries continues with the C Major Sonata, Op.
9, No. 2, the F# Minor Sonata, Op. 26 (L'Infortunée) and a 19-minute tone poem for piano, The Dream,
Op. 49. The music on this disc is very solid, in parts, inspired. Ries learned from his teacher, Beethoven,
how to construct a sonata. His piano writing contains some lovely melodic ideas and embellishments that
suggest the future, such as those found in Mendelssohn or Chopin. Op. 9, No. 2 is perfectly balanced; in
Op. 26, the finale, over 14 minutes, seems too long compared to the two movements that preceded it.
-Page 20 of 39-
Op. 49 is not a sonata; it is not particularly atmospheric in the sense of "dreaminess," and contains much
music suggesting military fanfares. It was written right after he established himself in London in 1813, to
acquaint English audiences with his playing. Although not as tuneful as his teacher's "Wellington's
Victory," also written in 1813, it was a great hit. Kagan plays this music with keen understanding.
Jerry Dubins
Fanfare, November 2010
Fanfare’s own Susan Kagan has been performing a real service on behalf of Ferdinand Ries (1784–1838).
This is her third volume dedicated to the composer’s piano sonatas and sonatinas. I was privileged to
review Volume 1 in Fanfare 32:3; Colin Clarke reviewed Volume 2 in 32:5; and here Volume 3 falls once
again to me. Kagan, who is not only a highly accomplished pianist but also a distinguished musicologist
who has written her own booklet notes and co-edited some of this music with Allan Badley, has surely
become today’s leading advocate for and exponent of Ries’s keyboard works. Not being anywhere near
as knowledgeable about Ries as Kagan is, I don’t know how many piano sonatas and sonatinas he wrote
in total, and how many more discs in this cycle we can look forward to.
Ries, as is well known, was a student of Beethoven—in piano, not composition—served for a time as the
master’s amanuensis, and was one of Beethoven’s early biographers. Still, he managed a successful
concert career as a pianist, wrote nine piano concertos of his own, and a quite respectable volume of
music, including eight symphonies, more than two dozen string quartets, and other chamber works.
Perhaps more than any of his other efforts, his oratorio, Die Könige in Israel, has had a fair degree of
staying power.
Like many composer/virtuoso performers of the time, however, Ries fell into that narrow gap, musically
speaking, between Beethoven/Schubert and Mendelssohn/Chopin, or in what you might call the
transitional phase between the end of the Classical and the onset of the full-blown Romantic periods.
That would include the likes of Czerny, Kalkbrenner, Moscheles, Spohr, Field, Onslow, and Paganini. In
her booklet notes, Kagan describes very well Ries’s “anticipation” of the romantic style and the ways in
which his piano sonatas are “harbingers of the romantic style that was to flourish two decades later.”
My response to the sonatas and sonatina presented on Volume 1 was not overly enthusiastic.
“Occasionally,” I wrote, “Ries offers a bold harmonic stroke, but overall my sense is of miles of
busywork—lots of running passages, especially in triplets—and not a single memorable tune. The
keyboard style is not unlike that which one hears in Schubert’s sonatas, but what strikes me as lacking
are melodic inspiration and the kind of dramatic contrasts that create alternating states of emotional
tension and repose. Good, solid musical ideas aplenty fly by, which one senses would be made
something significant of by a more gifted muse; but in Ries’s hands tuition never quite seems to achieve
fruition.” That conclusion in no way, however, faulted Kagan’s playing, which I found to be “flawless in
terms of keyboard dexterity and in terms of making sense of some of Ries’s quirky figurations and
mercurial shifts of gears.”
My reaction to the sonatas on the current volume remains unchanged. We’re dealing here with
something less than great music. Its main weakness, in my opinion, lies in an area seldom discussed in
music criticism, and that is the art of continuation. A melody, theme, or motive occurs to a composer and
-Page 21 of 39-
he writes it down. In itself the idea may be lovely, even memorable; but then comes the real test. What
comes next, how to go on?
The greatest composers seemed intuitively to know how to extend an idea or to counter it with another
in a way that sounds natural and right, as if it could not have been otherwise. Take, for example,
Schubert, whose piano sonatas Ries’s somewhat resemble in a superficial way. Within the first 30
seconds of Ries’s C-Major Sonata, he presents an attractive enough idea and introduces some Schubert-
like shifts into the underlying harmony, one at the 24-second mark that is quite striking. But then, at the
31-second mark, he comes to a dead stop and begins anew with a figure that sounds like the beginning
of Beethoven’s Für Elise. There’s little logic to what happens for the next 15 seconds, until he returns to
his opening statement at the 45-second mark.
It’s not that any of it sounds bad; rather, it’s that we’re not gripped by the sense of an unfolding drama
that takes us on an emotionally charged and psychologically satisfying journey. Contrast this to the first
45 seconds of Schubert’s great B?-Major Sonata, where the opening theme is not only harmonically
undermined a number of times, but is not even presented as a complete statement, so that its true
identity is concealed until the very end of the movement. Isn’t that the hymn tune Adeste Fidelis at its
core; and isn’t that why we experience such a catharsis when we hear it at the end? Ries is to Schubert
as Salieri was to Mozart; some are simply not summoned to such an exalted calling.
This does not mean that there is not much to take pleasure in here. The F?-Minor Sonata borrows much
from Beethoven. Listen to the “Waldstein”-like drumming bass in the left hand and the “Appasionata”-
like roulade of rapid repeated notes at 1:10. Kagan calls attention to the sonata’s “Pathétique”
similarities as well. Was Ries wallowing in self-pity when he titled the work “L’Infortunée” (“the
unfortunate” or “ill-fated”)? He wrote the work during his time in Paris, and he was disappointed and not
a little angry when the French didn’t express much enthusiasm for his music.
Truly one of the funniest essays I’ve come across on Ries was written by a Dr. David C. F. Wright, a
psychologist by profession. The article is accessible at musicweb-
international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Ries_Wright.htm. Wright recounts the story, possibly true, that
as a citizen of Bonn, Ries was subject to conscription in the French army, and was summoned to Paris in
1805, a journey of some 650 miles it is believed he made on foot. Perhaps that, or the fact that the army
decided he was unfit for duty once he got there because he had only one eye (he lost the other one in a
bout with smallpox as a child) was the reason he saw himself, in monocular vision of course, as
“l’infortunée.” Couldn’t he have sent this information to the conscription office before making the trip? I
mean, logic would have to tell you that someone with only one eye can’t shoot worth a damn; there’s a
lack of depth perception.
If Wright had stopped after he said, “There is a lot of rubbish written about composers and their music
and others perpetuate it by repetition; for example, Michael Kennedy writes that Salieri was hostile to
Mozart and there is the other apocryphal story that Salieri poisoned Mozart,” no one would question his
credentials as either an amateur music historian or professional psychologist. But when he says, “This
has done Salieri’s reputation no good and, while I adore much Mozart, Salieri is a finer composer and far
more original” [my italics], I would have to question his judgment in both fields of endeavor. One has to
wonder what Wright means when he says “Ries had his eyes set on Russia.” Don’t you just love this
-Page 22 of 39-
stuff? Kagan is smiling too, like a Cheshire cat, in her booklet photograph. She must have as wicked a
sense of humor as I do.
Ries’s fortunes took a turn for the better when he arrived in London in 1813. It was here that he wrote
his one-movement fantasy work The Dream. It has no program, but its multisectional form does suggest,
according to Kagan, a “programmatic narrative.” If Beethoven and Schubert were Ries’s models for the
earlier sonatas, the keyboard style of The Dream clearly stands at the threshold to Chopin.
Kagan’s playing continues to be exceptional. She serves up Ries in a most pleasing and palatable way.
And though I’ve yet to hear one of these works that I would care to take with me to the other side, while
I’m still on this side, I shall enjoy, in Colin Clarke’s words, the affection she lavishes on these works, in
the process elevating their stature. Ries could not have asked for a better pianist and proponent than he
has found in Susan Kagan. Definitely recommended.
Carl Bauman
American Record Guide, November 2010
this one is very well played and recorded…proves to be well worth having.
To read complete review, please visit American Record Guide online.
David Denton
David's Review Corner, July 2010
When Ferdinand Ries arrived in London in 1813, he found such a dearth of quality musicians that he was
soon installed as England’s foremost pianist-composer. Such were the demands for his performances and
music, and such was his income as to enable him to retire at the age of 40, taking his English wife to live
in his native Rhineland. He had been a pupil of Beethoven, his mentor having been taught by his father,
Franz Anton Ries, and there is much of Beethoven in his Piano Sonatas. They formed part of an extensive
catalogue of music in a style that influenced much that followed from Schubert, Mendelssohn and
Chopin. Though a virtuoso performer, there is not a great deal in these two sonatas that offers an
outgoing show of technical brilliance. The opus 9 sonata, composed four years before his arrival in
London, made special by the whirlwind final perpetuum mobile with the weight and insistent rhythm we
find in Beethoven. The opus numbers are not in order of composition, number 26 coming from the
previous year, its subtitle, L’infortunee, not directed at the music, but relates to his state of mind during
an unhappy period in Paris. The big heavyweight finale is pure Beethoven, and that alone should find the
work in the piano repertoire. The Dream was Ries’s ‘visiting card’ written soon after his arrival in London.
Full of charming filigree, it is meant to please. The much experienced American pianist, Susan Kagan,
gives very honest performances, never taking self-indulgent liberties, and creating a real ‘head of steam’
in the finale of L’infortunee. You do hear pedal action in this close recording, but it has plenty of impact
and is of a pleasing quality
-Page 23 of 39-
RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 4 - Op. 9, No. 1 and Op. 141
Susan Kagan, piano

Susan Kagan is an eloquent advocate and sympathetic interpreter of Ferdinand Ries’s piano sonatas and
sonatinas, on which she is an acknowledged authority. While clearly indebted to his teacher Beethoven,
Ries was nonetheless praised by Schumann for his ‘remarkable originality’ and eagerly explored the
expressive potential of the piano, often anticipating the achievements of Chopin or Schubert. ‘[Ries is] a
composer whose music deserves to be heard’ (Fanfare). Volumes 1–3 are also available (8.570796,
8.570743 and 8.572204).
8.572299 - RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 4 (Kagan) - Op. 9, No. 1 and Op.
141
English German
Ferdinand Ries (1784–1838)
Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas • 4
student, and early biographer. Ries’s relationship with Beethoven began in Bonn and continued in
Franz Ries, violinist in the Electoral Court Orchestra, who taught Beethoven the violin and befriended his
Johann Albrechtsberger for composition studies. Ries was probably Beethoven’s closest friend during this
-Page 24 of 39-
as a concert pianist and short stays in Paris and Vienna, Ries married an Englishwoman and settled in
London, where he continued to act on Beethoven’s behalf.
Music. In his lifetime virtually everything he composed was published, and often reissued by different
had perfected the sonata “ideal”. Later, he was influenced by new trends in the sonatas of Beethoven,
(song) form, rondo, variations, and that mastery, as well as striking originality, can be seen in all his
composers of the early Romantic period, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Chopin, who were not yet born or
still young children when he was at the peak of his piano sonata composition, from about 1805 to 1818.
Schubert’s poignant harmonic language, Mendelssohn’s expressive, sweet melodies, Chopin’s brilliant
figuration, all of these features prevail in Ries’s piano writing in his sonatas, well ahead of their full
flowering in the Romantic period after 1830. His last three sonatas, composed between 1823 and 1832,
reflect a change to a more overtly romantic style that appealed to a changing public taste.
“remarkable originality.” Like Schubert, he had an abundance of lyrical melodic ideas in constant flow.
The Sonata in D, Op. 9, No. 1, composed in Vienna in 1808 following Ries’s unhappy sojourn in Paris,
appeared in print in 1811 with its companion piece, the Sonata in C, Op. 9, No. 2 (Complete Sonatas and
Sonatinas, Vol. 3: Naxos 8.572204). The first movement, in sonata form, is in a brusque, martial style
ideally suited to the ceremonial character of the key of D major, with jaunty dotted rhythms in both the
first and second themes. A lyrical change of mood comes in the charming little codetta that closes the
exposition and the recapitulation.
The second movement functions as both a traditional slow movement and a dance movement. It is a
sombre minuet and trio (also featuring dotted rhythms) in the key of D minor. An important feature in
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this movement, unusual among Ries’s sonatas, is the pervasive use of counterpoint and canon. The
finale is a set of eight variations on a buoyant theme. The variations follow the traditional classical
pattern of varying rhythmic figuration, and include one in the style of an eighteenth-century music box
(Variation 4) and one in the parallel minor (Variation 7). The final two variations (Nos.7 and 8) are
extended, with cadenza-like passages in No. 7 and changes in tempo and character in No. 8.
The Sonata in A flat, Op. 141, Ries’s penultimate solo sonata, composed in 1826 following his return to
the German Rhineland, exemplifies the last phase of Ries’s sonata composition. The piano he wrote it for,
probably a new acquisition, had an extended range of 6½ octaves, and undoubtedly an increased
sonority. Its publication in 1827 by the French publisher Zetter was announced as Grande Sonate, and
indeed it is a work of large proportions, bringing together varying characteristics of Ries’s style, many of
them enumerated above in the description of romantic style elements in his music. The first movement,
in 6/8 metre, has a basically tranquil character, with passages of Chopinesque figuration; but the
development contains quite a lot of drama. The slow movement (E flat, Adagio con moto), with its
singing right-hand melody, is reminiscent of similar highly expressive slow movements in many of
Beethoven’s piano sonatas. Ries casts this movement as an ABA form, with a stormy middle section. The
finale is something of a romp: a rondo form, with a strongly rhythmical bass figure and much virtuosic
figuration.
Susan Kagan
Reviews
Colin Clarke
Fanfare, November 2011
…Susan Kagan’s ongoing Ries series for Naxos is one of that company’s finest-ever endeavors. Kagan’s
playing is smart, stylish and, most importantly, she believes in this music. So much is her engagement,
one feels that she lives and breathes Ries. Superb.
Jeremy Nicholas
Gramophone, August 2011
Beethoven’s pupil played with his own spirit of dependability
The forgotten works of Ferdinand Ries (1784–1838), well served lately by both CPO and Naxos, are of
variable quality and interest, all too often justifying his friend and mentor Beethoven’s observation that
“he imitates me too much”. An early edition of Grove admits that technically great as was much that Ries
composed, “that indescribable something, that touch of nature, which in music as elsewhere makes the
whole world kin, was wanting.”
The present two works are a case in point. The three-movement D major Sonata (1808 lasting 30
minutes) with the shadows of Beethoven in particular, Weber and Clementi falling heavily over the
accomplished and often charming handling of the material fails to establish an individual voice, the
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counterpoint and canon in the slow movement and the expressive theme and eight variations of the last
movement notwithstanding. In the likeable A flat Sonata (1826, 28’35”), Ries seems to have been
studying a lot of Schubert and Hummel in the outer movements while the central Adagio is almost
pastiche Beethoven.
I have not heard the three earlier volumes of Ries’s sonatas and sonatinas from Susan Kagan but here
her playing is rock solid and dependable with a faint whiff of pedagogy, in a different league to the
crusading spirit of Christopher Hinterhuber in Ries’s concertos (also on Naxos), and less alluring in the D
major Sonata than the excellent Alexandra Oehler on CPO, where, in addition, each variation is given its
own track. The finale of the Op 141 stretches Ms Kagan somewhat. Well recorded with an excellent
booklet by the pianist.
Carl Bauman
American Record Guide, May 2011
Susan Kagan has long specialized in composers of Beethoven’s time, particularly Archduke Rudolf and
Ries. Her playing is wonderfully full of feeling. The recording and her notes are very good.
To read the complete review, please visit American Record Guide online.
Colin Clarke
Fanfare, May 2011
Here’s Volume 4; there are no sonatinas in this volume, just two of the heftier sonatas (each lasts
around half an hour). The first we hear is the D Major, composed in 1808 in Vienna. For the first
movement, Ries pits grand ideas (in keeping with the key choice) against more gemütlich ideas. Kagan’s
pearly touch is a consistent delight. The end of this movement is strangely inconclusive. Presumably the
idea is to act as a bridge to the fragmentary beginning of the ensuing Tempo di menuetto ma molto
moderato. This second movement is fascinating, in that it is like hearing the boundaries of classical form
being pushed and fragmenting in front of one’s ears. It is multifunctional in that it acts as slow
movement and minuet, but its ambition is far beyond that. Ries’s contrapuntal embroiderings are a
constant source of delight. The first theme is of a distinct stumbling nature, giving it a most appealing
quirkiness (thanks, no doubt, to Kagan’s handling; it is easy to imagine it just sounding clumsy). The
finale begins with a deceptively simple, distinctly Schubertian theme (it is in fact a set of eight
variations). Kagan brings real fantasy to the cadenza-like passage around nine minutes in.
The A?-Sonata constitutes Ries’s penultimate effort in the genre. Again tripartite in structure, it was
composed in 1826. The lovely, flowing first movement casts its eye toward Weber. Ries deliberately
shades his charming music with Beethovenian overshadowings. Indeed, it is in the central Adagio con
moto where Beethoven’s influence is most marked. Kagan’s cantabile is magical, and she renders the low
bass figure around 1:15 superbly and characterfully. Rusticity is the order of the day for the finale (think
German country dance tunes). Here Kagan’s wonderful, pearly touch (noted earlier) comes into its own,
coupled with more of that lovely bass clarity. Throughout, Kagan’s pedaling is a model of taste. Textures
are always clear. Credit should also go the engineers and the piano technician. The superbly toned
Steinway is ably caught, as are Kagan’s myriad subtleties.
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In short, this is a disc that guarantees much pleasure. May the explorations continue.
Kevin Bryan
Halesowen News, February 2011
The latest Naxos offering from pianist Susan Kagan continues her exploration of the music of German
born Ferdinand Ries. This prodigious composer was a friend and pupil of Beethoven, and although fate
sadly decreed that he would be condemned to live his life in the shadow of his illustrious teacher much of
Ries’ music does possess an innately poetic and expressive charm. The natural empathy that Kagan felt
for his work prompted her to embark on a series of recordings covering the complete cycle of fourteen
Ries’ piano sonatas, and classical music lovers owe her a debt of gratitude for rescuing these attractive
keyboard creations from the undeserved obscurity that they’ve been languishing in for the past two
centuries or so.
Giv Cornfield
The New Recordings, Cliffs Classics, February 2011
It’s a pleasant feeling to know in advance that the recording one is about to hear will consist of well
performed, good music. In this, Susan Kagan’s fourth album of Ries’ solo keyboard works, one is treated
to on the one hand an early work that clearly reflects the influence of Beethoven, Ries’ teacher (Op.9),
and on the other, a glimpse anticipating Chopin (Op.141)—an interesting juxtaposition that Maestra
Kagan exploits to stunning advantage. Her playing flows naturally, and the piano sound is warm yet
brilliant. A pleasure throughout.
Byzantion
MusicWeb International, January 2011
This is the fourth volume in the Naxos series of Ries’s complete Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas. Volume 1
was reviewed recently on this site. Volume 5 is in fact already available, although only as a download
from the Naxos website—listed for physical release in May 2011.
Stylistically, Ries’s piano music sits somewhere between that of Hummel, Beethoven and Schubert. In a
way, his early death in 1838 marked the end of an era: these four great contributors to the late-
Classical/early-Romantic piano sonata had all died within eleven years of each other. Sadly for posterity,
not one of them had survived even into their sixties.
Of the four, Ries’s name is probably least known—more often than not relegated to a historical footnote
as piano pupil, friend, ‘agent’ and biographer of Beethoven. He is certainly the least recorded by a long
chalk. Yet he is by no means a minor talent, at least as far as piano composition is concerned—he wrote
prolifically for his instrument to great acclaim in his time, both by the public and his contemporaries. Nor
indeed when it came to piano playing, for which he soon established himself as one of the leading
performers in Europe—all the more remarkable an achievement in that he had lost an eye to a childhood
illness. Indeed, by the time he came to write the A flat Sonata, he had already earned enough money
from concert-giving to retire before the age of forty!
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Despite its low opus number, Ries was already in his mid-twenties when he wrote the Sonata in D, and it
is far from an immature work. It is the fifth of his fourteen solo sonatas, and beside the immediately
apparent tributes to Beethoven, there are clear resonances of Haydn, Mozart and Clementi.
Overall, the sonata is sparkling and memorable; a substantial thirty minutes in length, yet time flies by.
The second movement provides an unusual example in Ries’s piano music of prolonged counterpoint and
canon, whereas the third is a set of variations on a jaunty theme, a musical form that pervades his entire
corpus. The work is mercurially performed by Kagan.
After eleven years in London, where Ries not only married an Englishwoman, but consolidated both his
international renown and his bank account, he returned in 1824 to his homeland in north-western
Germany. There he spent the rest of his life in various local musical activities and in composition.
When he wrote the A flat Sonata in 1826, three years had passed since his last work in this genre, and it
would be a further six before he composed what would be his final sonata. These other two are available
on volume 5, and together with the A flat they represent a mature, Romantic phase in Ries’s sonatas.
Written for a now extended keyboard, the op. 141 has an altogether grander, more emotional feel about
it—looking forward to the Romantic pianism of Chopin, the Schumanns, Mendelssohn and even Brahms.
Ironically, it is slightly shorter than the D major work, but melody and drama combine over and over to
produce an expressive, lyrical, occasionally virtuosic and frequently beautiful whole, which Kagan plays
with typical insight and ease.
Susan Kagan is one of the great authorities on Ries’s music—though musicological interest in Ries has to
date been as puzzlingly low-key as the musical—and some of her knowledge she shares in a short essay
on both the composer and the two sonatas in the booklet, albeit in Naxos’s standard minuscule font-size.
Furthermore, Kagan has now—almost—recorded all the Ries piano sonatas for Naxos. There are actually
three more, for piano four hands, which the label will, I hope, not omit from this long-overdue tribute to
a worthy composer.
The works are well-recorded, though the microphones may be a trifle too close for some. The only real
pity is that Naxos did not use some of the empty twenty minutes of this rather short disc to give listeners
a little more of Ries’s highly original piano music—one of his 49 sets of variations or 42 rondos, perhaps!
Infodad.com, December 2010

“L’infortunee’ / The Dream, Op. 49 8.572204
RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 4 (Kagan) – Op. 9, No. 1 and Op. 141 8.572299
The sonatas by Beethoven’s sometime pupil, Ferdinand Ries, are far lesser creations than those of the
master, but Susan Kagan’s ongoing recordings of them make a strong case for them to be heard at least
occasionally. The works in both volumes 3 and 4 of Kagan’s series are unmistakably in line with those in
the first two volumes: melodically charming, strong in their forward impetus, and existing mostly on the
borderline between Classical times and Romantic. Far less challenging to play or hear than Beethoven’s
sonatas, those by Ries nevertheless have numerous moments of virtuosity and quite a few of lucidity.
And some of Ries’ piano works definitely look forward. The Dream, for example, stands out in Kagan’s
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third volume as a moody tone poem—and, at nearly 19 minutes, a substantial one. It meanders like a
fantasy, its moods shifting almost capriciously, and eventually ends with a level of playfulness somewhat
out of keeping with its earlier emotional underpinnings; but taken as a whole, it is a very fine and
convincing work—and one that shows Ries exploring directions that Beethoven himself did not. On the
other hand, the same volume’s Op. 26 sonata—“The Unfortunate,” the only Ries sonata with a title—
shows the composer clearly walking in Beethoven’s footsteps: this work, dating to 1808, is very similar in
style and mood to Beethoven’s “Pathétique” sonata of 1799, of which it seems a pale reflection (although
it is written in the key of Haydn’s “Farewell” symphony). In volume 4 of the Ries series, the more
interesting work is the Op. 141 sonata, the second-to-last that Ries composed. It dates to 1826, the year
before Beethoven’s death, and was written for a piano with greater range and sonorousness than those
in use in earlier times. Here the first movement, the most successful of the three, mixes fingerings that
will remind listeners of Chopin with sections of considerable drama. The second movement is expressive
enough, but shows much of Beethoven’s influence, as do so many of Ries’ works, and therefore seems
rather derivative; while the concluding rondo, which bounces along in a bright and effective manner,
seems rather too light and buoyant for what has come before. The Ries works in Kagan’s third and fourth
volumes confirm the impression made by those in the first and second: Ries was more craftsman than
innovator, certainly a skilled pianist and fine composer for his instrument, but only rarely able to move
beyond Beethoven’s shadow to develop works stamped with his individual personality. And yet all these
rarely played sonatas have elements of interest—in some cases, quite a few of them—and are worth
hearing at least once in a while.
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RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 5 - Opp. 114, 176, WoO 11
Susan Kagan, piano

No less an authority than Robert Schumann praised Beethoven’s close friend and protégé Ferdinand Ries
for his ‘remarkable originality’. More recently, pianist Susan Kagan, intrigued by Ries’s Op. 1 piano
sonatas went on to record all 14 of his solo piano sonatas and sonatinas, gaining critical acclaim for her
eloquent advocacy of these unfairly neglected yet often substantial works. Bridging the divide between
the Classical style of Haydn and Mozart and the Romantic impulses of Schubert, Chopin and
Mendelssohn, with a healthy dose of Beethoven often in evidence, Ries repays today’s listener’s attention
with musical drama, fluent virtuosity and poignant lyrical charm.
Ferdinand Ries is known mainly through his connection with Beethoven, as his family friend, piano pupil,
and early biographer. Ries’s relationship with Beethoven began in Bonn and continued in Vienna, and
later in London. Born in 1784, when Beethoven was fourteen, Ferdinand was the son of Franz Ries,
violinist in the Electoral Court orchestra, who taught Beethoven the violin and befriended his family
during Beethoven’s youth. Largely self-taught, Ferdinand first studied in Munich, but around 1803 he
went to Vienna to study the piano with Beethoven, who sent him to the noted theorist-composer Johann
Albrechtsberger for composition lessons. Ries was probably Beethoven’s closest friend during this period,
carrying out all kinds of musical and secretarial tasks for him, copying parts, making transcriptions and
arrangements, proof-reading and seeing to publications. Later, after years of touring as a concert pianist
and short stays in Paris and Vienna, he married an Englishwoman and settled in London, where he
continued to act on Beethoven’s behalf.
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Europe, including Russia, to great acclaim, and was honored with membership of the Royal Swedish
Academy of Music. Virtually everything he composed was published, and often republished by different
had perfected the sonata “ideal”. Later, he was influenced by new trends in sonatas of Beethoven,
(song) form, rondo, variations, and that mastery, as well as striking originality, can be seen in all his
compositions. What is most remarkable, however, is his anticipation of the style of the great piano
composers of the early Romantic period, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Chopin, who were not yet born or
still young children when he was at the peak of his piano sonata composition around 1809. Schubert’s
poignant harmonic language, Mendelssohn’s expressive, sweet melodies, Chopin’s brilliant figuration, all
of these features prevail in Ries’s piano writing in his sonatas, well ahead of their full flowering in the
Romantic period after 1830. His last three sonatas, composed between 1823 and 1832, reflect a change
to a more overtly romantic style that appealed to a changing public taste.
“remarkable originality”. Like Schubert, he had an abundance of lyrical melodic ideas in constant flow.
The Sonata in A, Op. 114, composed around 1823, initiates the final period of Ries’s piano sonata
composition, while he was still living in London. Like many works in the key of A, its character is warm,
cheerful, and serene, at least in the cantabile first movement, which consists of a lyrical two-part theme
followed by three variations. A spirited Scherzo in A minor, in the form of a rondo, replaces the usual
slow movement. Thepresto finale is also a rondo; the main (rondo) theme is a quiet little two-part moto
perpetuo with a stream of running sixteenth-notes (semiquavers); the two contrasting sections are brisk
and assertive.
Ries’s final piano sonata, the Sonata in A flat, Op. 176, was composed in Rome in 1832; the autograph,
“presented to his estimable friend the Abate F. Santini”, is preserved in the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in
Rome. In this sonata the Romantic gestures anticipated in Ries’s earlier sonatas are fully realised. The
first movement has a spirit of optimism, embodied in its themes, all of which begin with an ascending,
buoyant melody. The slow movement is a highly expressive dialogue between two voices, one in the
treble and the other in the bass, much in the style of a vocal duet. To provide a seamless, flowing
rhythm, Ries shifts the metre between 6/8 and 9/8 throughout. The third movement is a
charming Ländler in the tonic key, with a trio in the tonic minor. The finale is Ries’s usual favourite, a
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rondo. The rondo theme itself is in two parts, a fast-moving, bouncing section in A flat minor, followed by
a soaring passage in A flat major. There are two contrasting sections, the first, a chirping, light-hearted
passage, the second flowing and lyrical. Like the first movement, the finale glows with a buoyant spirit.
Some mystery surrounds the date of the Sonata in B minor, WoO 11, an unpublished early work, without
opus number. An inscription on the manuscript, now in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, which
holds the bulk of Ries’s works, reads “Sonate pour le Piano Forte composé par Ferdinand Ries à Munich
1805”. Ries, however, was in Vienna in 1805, and in Munich in 1801. The 1801 date appears to be
likelier, based on various pieces of evidence, such as the limited range of the piano in the sonata, and
the extensive use of an Alberti bass accompaniment. In general, there is a clear jump in compositional
technique from WoO 11 to the two sonatas of Op. 1, published in 1806. While clearly an immature work,
the B minor sonata is the starting-point for the fourteen sonatas of Ries’s oeuvre, and as such has an
important rôle in any survey of the sonatas. The mood of the first movement is sombre and dark, moving
slowly with long pauses between phrases. The slow movement, although in the parallel major, conveys a
similar mood. The third movement (the first of the many rondos in Ries’s piano sonatas) is clearly
influenced by the third movement of Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata in C minor, Op. 13; the similarity
in themes is unmistakable. What stands out in this early work is the composer’s strong lyrical bent, and
his inspired and poignant melodic writing, the traits that were to figure prominently in all the music that
followed.
Susan Kagan
Reviews
Colin Clarke
Fanfare, September 2011
Susan Kagan’s survey of Ferdinand Ries piano music continues in this, the fifth volume of her series. The
A-Major Sonata dates from Ries’s final period (it was composed around 1823), and one can perhaps be
forgiven for spotting the many parallels with late Beethoven, not least a surprising sparseness of texture,
unashamed use of registral extremes, and the emancipation of the trill from a merely decorative
function. Over and above all this, there is a feeling of serenity that also mirrors late Beethoven. The
Scherzo (A Minor) is interesting. Cast in rondo form, it exudes resolve while encompassing moments of
respite. Kagan is superb at delineating each and every mood. She also exhibits superb legato at speed
for the moto perpetuo theme of the finale, while articulating the left-hand keening motion (which in
other, lesser hands would surely go unnoticed) with great character. Chordal outbursts are purely
celebrational.
The A?-Sonata, op. 176, is Ries’s final essay in this genre (Rome, 1832; his penultimate sonata had also
shared this key). After the facility of op. 114’s finale, op. 176’s first movement ruminates on a varity of
textures and fragments. Although the mood is optimistic, it is nevertheless exploratory. There is a
beautiful civility to the dialogues between voices in the first movement; this element of dialogue is
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enhanced and expanded in the beautiful Larghetto quasi andante (perfectly paced here by Kagan). The
cantabile here is a continual sense of delight, and the richness of Kagan’s tone is expertly retained by
Naxos’s engineers (the recording itself is made in the Beethoven-Saal, Hanover). After this, Kagan
captures the sweet innocence of the theme of the Ländler third movement perfectly, and contrasts this
with the shifting rhythms of the mysterious Trio. What is consistently interesting about this music is how
Ries might begin a movement with a gesture or a theme of charm, and the myriad ways he goes on to
explore that music’s potentialities. At times quirky, sometimes witty, sometimes tragic, often
unpredictable, he is rarely less than fascinating, and often much more.
Kagan sees the B-Minor Sonata as “the starting point for the 14 sonatas of Ries’s oeuvre.” It dates from
either 1801 or 1805. It is not a slight work, as it lasts some 22 minutes and begins with an intimate
eight-minute slow movement marked Largo molto et appassionato that is followed by a seven-minute
Adagio. The first movement reaches its nadir, its darkest point, around two minutes before its end.
Kagan gives the silences of the central Adagio full weight. The music speaks eloquently through them.
Ries’s textures are surprisingly, daringly bleak at times. Even the finale brings little relief (Allegro
agitato), and it ends enigmatically, with the musical equivalent of a raised eyebrow This is a remarkable
work that fully deserves to sit with the two later works on the disc.
I really cannot think of anything negative to say about this most recent volume. It takes one on a voyage
of discovery that guarantees to delight and fascinate. More, it (at least in my case) inspires one to look
further. Ferdinand Ries’s cause could hardly be better championed.
Byzantion
MusicWeb International, July 2011
This is the fifth volume in Naxos’s series of the complete piano sonatas and sonatinas of German
composer Ferdinand Ries. It has been available as a download from the Naxos website for a few months
already. Volume 4, which was recorded by Susan Kagan at the same time, was enthusiastically reviewed
here. With the physical release of this volume, only the three sonatas for piano four hands remain for
Kagan and Naxos to add the capstone to this splendid edition—and these are, rumour has it, in the
pipeline. Ries’s discography on Naxos has in any case been growing steadily. There are two CDs of
chamber works with flute, and four of presumably five volumes of Ries’s complete works for piano with
orchestra—vol.3 was reviewed here, and vol.4 can be previewed here.
Stylistically, Ries’s piano music sits somewhere between that of Hummel, Beethoven and Schubert.
Between them these four made an immense contribution to the late-Classical/early-Romantic piano
sonata, despite the fact that not one of them lived even to see his 60th birthday. Of the four, Ries’s
name is probably least known—more often than not relegated to a historical footnote as piano pupil,
friend, ‘agent’ and biographer of Beethoven. Yet he is by no means a minor talent, at least as far as
piano composition is concerned—he wrote prolifically for his instrument to great acclaim in his time, both
by the public and his contemporaries. Nor indeed when it came to piano playing, of which he soon
established himself as one of the leading performers in Europe—all the more remarkable an achievement
in that he had lost an eye to a childhood illness.
Kagan relates in her notes the mystery regarding the date of the early Sonata in B minor (WoO 11). The
inscription on the manuscript reads “Sonate pour le Piano Forte composé par Ferdinand Ries à Munich
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1805”, but Ries was in Munich in 1801, and Vienna in 1805. She writes: “The 1801 date appears to be
likelier, based on various pieces of evidence, such as the limited range of the piano in the sonata, and
the extensive use of an Alberti bass accompaniment. In general, there is a clear jump in compositional
technique from WoO 11 to the two sonatas of Op. 1, published in 1806.”
This was Ries’s only unpublished piano sonata, and therefore gives an early glimpse of the treasures that
lay ahead. The opening movement not only has a probably unique tempo marking, Largo molto et (sic)
appassionato, but is rhythmically striking from the very start. Moreover, for the first minute and a half it
sounds like a distorted echo of the opening of Beethoven’s famous so-called “Moonlight” Sonata
(op.27/2). After that it picks up the pace, but the moonlit atmosphere continues, and the odd rhythmic
push ’n’ pull returns. The slow movement moves tonally back into major, but the mood remains rather
saturnine, at least until the final bars. The third movement sounds even more strikingly like Beethoven—
this time the final movement of his “Pathétique” sonata (op.13). Beethoven’s opp.13 and 27/2 had both
been recently published, and around this time Ries was Beethoven’s copyist, so these likenesses are
more than coincidence—Beethoven must have generously taken them as the pupil’s homage they
undoubtedly were. Ries was still in his teens when he wrote the B minor Sonata, and though clearly an
‘immature’ work, Ries’s lyricism and ear for rhythm are already in evidence, even if some of his creativity
at this stage originated in his great teacher.
By contrast, the Sonata in A, op.114 is the first of Ries’s three mature works in the genre, spaced across
a decade. Written around 1823, this is a short, reflective, yet still optimistic work, from the almost
childlike simplicity of the opening bars of the theme-and-variations Andantino cantabile first movement.
In fact, this is as close as the work gets to a slow movement, as the second and third are both in rondo
form: a lively scherzo followed by a cheery finale which is almost like a summary of what has gone
before. As might be expected from the date, the Sonata is reminiscent of a Beethoven-Schubert hybrid,
but Ries now has a style and sound of his own.
After this sonata, written at the end of an eleven-year stay in London, Ries returned with an English wife,
international renown and bulging bank account to his homeland in north-western Germany, where he
spent the rest of his life in various local musical activities and composition. But he was in Rome when he
wrote his final Sonata in 1832, the A flat, op.176, one of his last works of any kind.
The Sonata is in four movements, something Ries had not tried for nearly 25 years, since his early op.9
no.2 work. On the other hand, he chose the same key as for his penultimate Sonata, op.141 (see vol. 4),
where he had used it for the first time. In any case, this work showcases Ries the Romantic, writing for a
by this time extended keyboard. Whether or not it represents a summation of Ries’s aspirations in this
genre is a moot point; after all, Ries deceased before reaching old age—his father Franz died a week
short of his 91st birthday, outliving him by eight years, and his brother Joseph, only six years younger,
actually died on his 91st birthday, surviving Ferdinand by an incredible 44 years. Nevertheless, the
Sonata is an expressive, wistful, but utterly elegant work, full of Ries’s trademark relaxed lyricism and
melodic creativity. It looks forward to Chopin, Mendelssohn and, in the exuberantly classical, and highly
memorable, rondo finale, even to Brahms. Yet there are still fond adieux to Beethoven and particularly
Schubert—most obviously in the delightful German dance in the third movement.
Although it can easily be rectified in a CD player, the order of works on the disc seems misjudged—a
chronological arrangement would have been more satisfying, most of all because the final Allegro of
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op.176 is Susan Kagan’s finest possible tribute to Ries’s piano sonatas. On the other hand, Kagan’s
performance is simply marvellous throughout—she plays with sophistication, expression and humour that
Ries himself would certainly have applauded. Kagan is also one of the leading published authorities on
Ries’s music, and provides the informative liner notes. The recording and general technical quality are
once again first-rate.
Ries wrote a lot of music, and his numerous songs, 26 string quartets, 28 violin sonatas and a heap of
other piano music really do urgently need to be made available to the world and posterity in the form of
recordings. With luck, Naxos…may be considering some of those projects right now.
Infodad.com, June 2011

Susan Kagan’s fine exploration of the now little-known piano music of Beethoven’s pupil, friend and
biographer, Ferdinand Ries, continues in a fifth volume with two of Ries’ most substantial piano sonatas.
Op. 114, which dates to 1823—while Beethoven was still alive—is warm, cheerful, serene and lyrical,
unchallenging to hear although far from easy to perform. It sounds like a throwback to pre-Beethoven
sonatas, although it does have more weight than many of those by, say, Haydn. The final rondo, a moto
perpetuo requiring a steady hand and clear sense of rhythm (both of which Kagan possesses), is
particularly pleasant. Op. 176, written in 1832, is the last of Ries’ 14 piano sonatas, and it has some
intriguing formal characteristics, such as metrical shifts between 6/8 and 9/8 in the expressive slow
movement. It remains essentially a Classical-era work, though, with its general air of optimism, its
typical-for-Ries final rondo, and a third movement (out of four) labeled as a Scherzo and featuring a
Haydnesque contrast between major and minor (the latter in the trio). Both these sonatas are more
substantial than the early WoO 11, which probably dates to around 1801—five years before Ries’ two
sonatas, Op. 1. This early work’s minor key gives it a somber (although scarcely heavy) feeling, and the
third and final movement—not surprisingly, a rondo—shows the influence of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 8,
“Pathétique.” The melodic writing is strong here and the sonata is well put together, but it is not highly
original—an issue for much of Ries’ music, but certainly no reason for it to have fallen into near-total
obscurity.
David Denton
David's Review Corner, May 2011
If you wonder why Naxos are releasing the complete sonatas and sonatinas by Beethoven’s piano
student, Ferdinand Ries, then sample the delights of the early B minor sonata. He was to become an
active touring concert pianist who eventually found fame and fortune when living in London. The piano
also dominated his compositions, the present release containing two sonatas from his mature years and
an unpublished sonata that was presumably from his younger years. And it is that early B minor score
that possesses a wonderful freshness and attractive thematic invention that often escaped him in later
life. Indeed the vivacious Allegro agitato would have graced any early work by his mentor. That he grew
increasingly assured in the development of his material comes in one of his London works, the A major
sonata from around 1823. Here he starts unusually with a spacious andante cantabile, followed by an
unhurried scherzo and a spinning-wheel finale. His last sonata, in A flat major, dates from 1832 was
composed while in Italy. Here he moved back to a four movement format, inspiration seeming to have
come from Schubert, Ries’s motivation having dried up. That does not deter the American pianist, Susan
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Kagan, who is making out a very good case for all of the sonatas, and one can only repeat that she has
an obvious affinity and affection with Ries. The recorded sound is pleasing.
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RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 6 - Opp. 6, 47, 160
Susan Kagan, piano; Vassily Primakov, piano

It was natural that the piano sonata occupied so important a place in the compositions of Ferdinand Ries,
given Beethoven’s friend and pupil was one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the age. He wrote only
three sonatas for piano duet but they reflect, as do his solo sonatas, a perfect synthesis of classicism and
incipient Romantic influence. In particular the Sonata in A major, Op 160 is a tour de force of rich,
almost orchestral writing. Fanfare lauded the previous volume in this series, adding that it was ‘a voyage
of discovery that guarantees to delight and fascinate’. (Volume 5: 8.572300)
Ferdinand Ries, pupil and friend of Beethoven, was one of the greatest pianists of his time, as well as a
prolific composer. Born into a professional musical family in Bonn, Germany, he went to Vienna around
1801 and became a piano student and devoted assistant to Beethoven, later contributing to an important
early biography of him. In 1813 he moved to London, where he married an Englishwoman, gained
popular and financial success as a virtuoso pianist touring Europe, taught, and composed. In 1824 Ries
retired to his native Rhineland, eventually settling in Frankfurt, where he died in 1838.
Ries composed in virtually all genres of music, including opera, symphony, concerto, chamber music,
sacred music, and song. His works for piano include eight brilliant piano concertos and other virtuosic
works for piano and orchestra, fifteen solo sonatas, and dozens of pieces designed for popular
consumption, such as variations, rondos, fantasies, and dance pieces, for both solo piano and piano duet
(two performers at one keyboard).
The piano sonata occupied a special place in Ries’s output. His first sonatas were modeled on those by
CPE Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and the young Beethoven, all of whom had worked to perfect the classical
sonata “ideal”. Later Ries was influenced by new trends in sonatas by Clementi, Hummel, and the rising
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generation of early Romantic composers—Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann. He developed a more

overtly Romantic style that appealed to the changing public taste. Although he composed only three
sonatas for piano duet, these works, like the solo sonatas, reflect his mastery of the classical sonata
style and his success in adapting it to the new ideals of the Romantic period.
Cecil Hill, the Australian music historian who studied Ries’s music and published a thematic catalogue of
his work, remarked on the inaccuracy of many of the dates in the Ries catalogue. A case in point
concerns the origins of the Sonatina in C major, Op 6; despite its early opus number, according to Ries’s
own handwritten catalogue it was composed in 1825 when he was living in the city of Godesberg in the
Rhine region, but was not published or registered until March 1832. It is small-scale, very simple in style,
most likely composed as a teaching piece for students. A miniature of his mature sonatas, it is in four
movements, each characterized by charming melodies and short repeated sections. Its innocent charm is
reminiscent of the sound of a music-box. The tempos are moderate, the melodic material simple and
lyrical, and the technical demands minimal. Three of the four movements are in C; the third movement,
an Andante, is in G.
According to a date on the autograph score of the Sonata in B flat, Op 47, it was composed in 1816,
around the time Ries established himself in London following successful tours through Europe. The primo
and secondo parts are beautifully integrated and balanced. In the first movement (in sonata form) there
are distinctly contrasting themes for the various sections; a jaunty theme in D major with dotted
rhythms is followed by a melancholic one in D minor. The second movement, Larghetto cantabile, is a
lyrical little interlude in E flat. The finale is a rondo, Ries’s favourite form for last movements; this one,
marked Allegretto, is in 6/8 metre with dotted rhythms, in the style of a Siciliano.
Sonata in A, Op 160
Published as Grande Sonata and dedicated to Carl Czerny, Ries’s Sonata in A major, Op 160, a large-
scale work, is a fitting conclusion to his four-hand piano music. Composed in Frankfurt after Ries’s
retirement to the Rhineland, around 1831, the writing makes full use of the extended keyboard, resulting
in a rich texture that is often orchestral in sound. The writing is intricate; Ries’s careful division of the
main melodic material between the primo and secondo parts provides variety and interest. In this sonata
Ries introduces a unique expressive indication for tempo change—a bracketed line over several measures
that marks off a section to be played “ein wenig langsamer” (a little slower, or held back). At the end of
the bracketed section, the first tempo returns. The intention is apparently to avoid the use of rubato,
where the pulse of the music is flexibly slowed down or speeded up within a phrase, but at the same
time to allow the music to be fully expressive. This new notation does not seem to have survived in any
other works.
The opening movement (A minor) is turbulent and intense; the main theme of the first movement is
based on a strong, terse motif in octaves serving as an introduction. The second theme, in C major, is
gentle and lyrical. Although Ries generally shows little interest in counterpoint, the extended
development section has several imitative sections, with much interplay between the primo and secondo
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parts. A sudden change to a slow, improvisatory section in B major is the bridge to the recapitulation,
and a return to the opening of the movement.
The tempo indication for the second movement (E major)—Adagio con espressione—brings Beethoven to
mind, in the profoundly expressive slow movements of some of his early sonatas. The Adagio of this
sonata is in an almost operatic style, with extended melodies featuring fioritura in aria-like passages. The
form is ABA: a middle section, in an agitated crescendo of triplet figures, reaches a dramatic high point,
before slowly returning to the material of the first section.
The finale, in A major, brings another mood entirely: it is a high-spirited, dance-like movement in a lively
tempo, far removed from the high drama and seriousness of the first two movements. Its main theme
combines a little trill figure with a bouncing staccato phrase in the rhythm and spirit of a jig. Here again
Ries’s development of the theme often employs imitation between the parts, with a fugue-like central
episode. The high spirits of the finale provide a joyful conclusion to Ries’s final piano sonata.
Susan Kagan
Reviews
Mortimer H. Frank
Fanfare, January 2014
Hearing this release—each of its three works superbly performed—provides a two-fold impact. For one
thing, it offers an overview of Ries’s growth as a composer. It also reminds us that a composer need not
be a Beethoven or a Schubert to create arresting works. Throughout the three pieces the performances
are stylish, with tempos that are aptly animated while never sounding rushed and lyrical without
becoming static. © 2014 Fanfare Read complete review
David Denton
David's Review Corner, August 2013
You can picture the teacher sat next to the childhood pupil as they enjoy playing the four short
movements of the C major Sonatina pretending it is grown-up music. Taught the piano by Beethoven, it
was only with Ferdinand Ries’s move to England in 1813 that, at the age of twenty-nine, he was to find
fame and fortune as a keyboard virtuoso at a time when there was a dearth of home-grown pianists. The
piano dominated his output with eight surviving concertos and a collection of Sonatas and Sonatinas, of
which this is the sixth volume in a complete recorded cycle. It contains music for four hands at one
piano, and after that opening Sonatina, we come to more weighty sonatas including his final four hand
work, the opus 160 in A major. Originally called the Grande Sonata, it is an imposing score that takes its
inspiration as much from Schubert as from Beethoven. It allows both pianists to flex their fingers in an
extended opening movement…Ries sends his audience home with a happy finale. The short Sonata in B
flat is pleasing…The American pianist, Susan Kagan, and her American-trained Russian colleague, Vassily
Primakov, play the music with obvious delight and ample technique for the A major Sonata. Good quality
studio sound. © David’s Review Corner

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-Page 1 of 39-

RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 2 - Opp. 1, 5

Total Playing Time: 0:58:39

Rediscovering Ferdinand Ries by Susan Kagan

Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838) is one of many talented composers who enjoyed

Ferdinand Ries concertos—is now becoming known through recordings.

Ferdinand Ries Biography & Discography

Susan Kagan Biography & Discography

Infodad.com, October 2008

RIES, F.: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas (Complete), Vol. 2 - Opp. 1, 5

Introduction (from: http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.570743)

sonatinas are perfect miniature exemplars of Ries’s mastery of form.

Introduction (from: http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.570743)

A. Introduction: Larghetto con moto (E flat major)

Infodad.com, December 2010

To read complete review, please visit American Record Guide online.

Introduction (from: http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572299)

Infodad.com, December 2010

Introduction (from: http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572300)

Infodad.com, June 2011

Introduction (from: http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573063)

generation of early Romantic composers—Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann. He developed a more

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