Sonatas by Beethoven’s Master Pupil“Beethoven takes more effort with me than I would have thought. The precision that he wants to have from me is hardly imaginable, but to hear him fantasizing is completely beyond the imaginable: this pleasure I have already had five times.” It was thus that the nineteen-year-old Ferdinand Ries wrote about the piano lessons with his famous teacher. It is thus no surprise that Beethoven had a shaping influence on the young virtuoso and budding composer, even if he did not give him instruction in composition. Ries’s first composition intended for the public, his Opus 1, consisted of two piano sonatas which he of course dedicated to his teacher. As in his symphonies, so too in his piano sonatas: Ries grapples with his colossal model, and here too it is always astonishing how he forges ahead to find his own personal expression.
Works:
•Ries, Ferdinand: Andantino from Sonatina Op. 5,1
• Ries, Ferdinand: Andantino from Sonatina Op. 5,2
• Ries, Ferdinand: Grande Sonate Fantaisie "L'infortune" Op. 26 In f sharp minor
• Ries, Ferdinand: Grande Sonate Op. 9 No. 1 in D major
• Ries, Ferdinand: Piano Sonata in D major, Op. 9, No. 1