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Have you ever wondered what the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven would sound like if their composers weren't geniuses? The symphonies of Ferdinand Ries are the answer. Ries, an early favored pupil of Beethoven, wrote his first symphony in 1809 and his eighth and last in 1835, and although they are obviously well crafted, pleasantly melodic, and attractively scored, Ries' symphonies are too obviously in arrears to their illustrious forbearers and contemporaries -- and the enormous debt he owes for purloined gestures, stolen themes, and swiped forms has fatally impoverished Ries' imagination. Certainly, one cannot fault the performances of Howard Griffiths and the Zürcher Kammerorchester. With amazing clarity, astounding accuracy, and astonishing passion, they give everything they've got to give to Ries' music. In their hands, the symphonies' colors are as bright, their themes are as strong, and their forms are as dramatic as this second-hand music can sound. While listeners deeply steeped in the works of the Austro-Germanic symphonists of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries will surely want to hear these symphonies for the contrast they represent with Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven, they may get more pleasure from playing "name the source" than from the music itself. Whether straight digital or super audio digital, CPO's sound is clean, cool, and colorful.

Veel plezier ermee..