Ferdinand Ries - Symphonies Nos.1 & 2

Ferdinand RIES (1784-1838)

Symphony No. 1 In D Major, Op. 23

Symphony No. 2 In C Minor, Op. 80

Tapiola Sinfonietta

Janne Nisonen 

Release Date: 05/2024

Review:

Ferdinand Ries is better known now for his association with Beethoven. His own music is not an unknown quantity, though, and much of his chamber and orchestral output has been explored on the CPO and Naxos labels. It’s often judged to sound rather like skilful Beethoven pastiche, approaching but never quite capturing the indelible memorability of his teacher’s thematic invention or the revolutionary originality of his compositional approach.

That’s a fairly reasonable appraisal of these two symphonies. No 1 is dated 1809; following an expansive, tonally off-centre Adagio introduction, the reminiscences fly at you thick and fast: the Eroica, Coriolan, the Fifth Symphony and something hinting perhaps at the Pastoral – not to mention passages that bring to mind one or two of Schubert’s early symphonies, in both sound and effect. The slow movement is designated Marche funèbre, which requires no further comment.

Not that Ries isn’t his own man. He’s a master of form and orchestration, as demonstrated by that funeral march or by the Minuet, with its martial trumpet-and-drum tattoos. You feel a Beethoven would have ranged further harmonically and explored his themes more thoroughly, though, and indeed the sprightly closing Allegro is more amibitious in its harmonic trajectory, with even a touch of developmental counterpoint in the mix.

Symphony No 2 plants its tanks on Beethoven’s C minor garden, with a second subject (in E flat major) that’s almost a straight lift from the Eroica along with audible borrowings from Mozart’s Symphony No 39. The Trio of the Minuet hints at something more exotic in its piping oboe, and again the finale takes greater risks with its material. The Tapiola Sinfonietta play admirably well under Janne Nisonen, empowering the music to speak for itself. It’s a fascinating portrait of what else was going on in Vienna in Beethoven’s orbit and thus valuable on its own terms. Ries’s symphonies have been recorded before, in a rather more resonant acoustic in Zurich. But if you’re intrigued, this is as good a place as any to start.

Frmo Gramophone