Susan Kagan - Ries: Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas, Vol. 3 (2010) CD-Rip

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.