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Back in Fanfare 32:5, I reviewed Volume 2 of Susan Kagan's ongoing survey of the piano sonatas and sonatinas of Ferdinand Ries. 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. 


Veel plezier ermee..