Ferdinand Tönnies

Five Piano Concertos and the Piano Sonata No. 32, opus 111, recorded in stereo in 1962 and 1964, respectively, by Wilhelm Kempff [1895-1991] and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Ferdinand Leitner [1912-96]. The sonata, the composer’s last, is certainly more than a mere filler, from the opening hesitancy of the ‘Allegro con brio ed appassionato’ to the extended closing section of the second movement.

Hits To The Head is a 20-track greatest hits collection spanning the almost 20 year existence of Franz Ferdinand. Alongside 18 classics the album features two brand-new tracks “Billy Goodbye” and “Curious” co-produced by Alex Kapranos, Julian Corrie and Stuart Price.

It is usually the big nineteenth-century opera sets that are bought for their singers; but with a line-up of principals such as we have here Handel too is swept into the golden net. Lucia Popp, two years into her career after her Vienna debut, Christa Ludwig, Fritz Wunderlich, Walter Berry: that is a quartet which in its time may have seemed no more than standard stuff, but at this date looks starry indeed. […] The Orfeo, for one thing, is sung in German instead of Italian; it has cuts, though many fewer than the Mackerras recording in English with Dame Janet Baker; it has the solo voices recorded very close indeed (those that are supposedly off-stage are just about where many modern recordings would have them except when off-stage); and the orchestra sounds, to our re-trained ears, big and thick, with the heavy bass-line that used to seem as proper to Handel as gravy from the roast was to Yorkshire pudding. The roles of Caesar and Sextus, moreover, are taken by men, and there is not a countertenor in sight.

If the number of compositions written for a specific instrument is any indication of a predilection, then Ferdinand Ries did indeed have a soft place in his heart for the flute. He penned no fewer than six quartets for flute and string trio, a quintet for flute, violin, two violas, and violoncello, a trio for piano, flute and violoncello, and many works for flute and piano - more works than for any other wind instrument. His first Flute Quartet presents itself as a grand, imposing quartet in the affirmative key of C major and contains many surprising elements. Here too, as already in his symphonies and string quartets, Ries proves to be an entirely independent and original composer - despite his close association with Beethoven.

This is a rather exuberant collection of cello sonatas by Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838), a student of Beethoven and, along with Beethoven, an innovator of the cello/piano sonata form. Neither Mozart nor Haydn composed cello sonatas; for their more intimate music they preferred the trio or even the string quartet where, in either case, the cello's role always remains submerged. Ries gave the cello a greater and more melodic role (which he learned from Beethoven), and the genre is all the more enriched because of it. But you won't hear Beethoven in any of Ries' works.

It is our good fortune that Ferdinand Ries bequeathed to posterity six remarkably beautiful Quartets for Flute, Violin, Viola, and Violoncello. These compositions sparkle like gems in the early Romantic chamber literature including the flute. On the present release, Vol. 2 of our complete recording, his Quartets in G major WoO 35, 2 and E minor op. 145, 2 as well as his remarkable String Trio in E minor WoO 70, 2 are heard. On the one hand, conventional elements verging on practically Baroque sequential processes stand out in the trio. On the other hand, here we also find innovative musical surprises and full-fledged, motivically organized development sections, above all in the fourth movement.

Beethoven’s gifted pupil Ferdinand Ries was never entirely forgotten, but it is only in recent years that CPO and Hermann Max have dedicated themselves with great success to the rediscovery of this spirited late classicist and romanticist. Ries’ oratorio Der Sieg des Glaubens (The Triumph of Faith), is heard here for the first time since 1829 where is was written in response to a commission for the Lower Rhine Music Festival in Aachen. The work develops a philosophical discourse dealing with the power of faith and the grace of God.

This is the second disc devoted by the Chinese-German Trio Parnassus to the chamber music of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, the dedicatee of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3. The prince was an aristocratic patron for whom the irascible Beethoven actually had musical respect, noting that he played not "in a princely or royal manner but rather like a competent piano player." Ferdinand, who was killed by Napoleon's troops in 1806, in turn venerated Beethoven, but the strongest tribute to his talent is that as a composer he wrote music that neither aped Beethoven's nor took refuge in Classical models.

Vol. 3 of our recording of the string quartets of Ferdinand Ries with the Schuppanzigh Quartet presents selected works underscoring his great importance as a composer! Once again Ries proves to be a master and in retrospect a pathbreaking composer who today is a rewarding rediscovery. Throughout his life the Beethoven pupil Ries occupied himself with the composition of string quartets and string quintets. His String Quintet No. 2 received virtually hymnic praise in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in 1817: it was »in every respect one of the most outstanding works by this composer; in fact it even ranks with the most outstanding works of all that have come out in this genre for a number of years.« In this work Ries apparently hit on the blend of traditional and innovative elements corresponding to the expectations of discriminating listeners from his times.