Volume One of Ferdinand Ries’ Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas performed by Susan Kagan
Posted by Kelly in New ReleasesA new album of very rarely recorded Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas composed by Ferdinand Ries will be available from Naxos on August 26. Performed by Beethoven scholar and acclaimed pianist Susan Kagan, Ries’ Sonatas in F minor and E flat major and the Sonatina in A minor were written between the years of 1807 and 1812. Despite being composed before many of the Early Romantic composers were born, these sonatas show an obvious anticipation of the harmonic styles and emotional expression of many the Early Romantic greats such as Schubert and Mendelssohn.
Born in Bonn in 1884, Ferdinand Ries was found to be a talented musician at a very young age. Ries spent most of his teenage years under the tutelage of his father, musician and Beethoven tutor Franz Anton Ries. In 1801, Ferdinand was sent to Vienna equipped with a letter of introduction from his father to his former student Beethoven. Ries studied piano with Beethoven and the great composer made sure to introduce him to all of the most well-known musicians in Vienna. In return, Ries acted as Beethoven’s personal secretary, copyist and represented his publishing interests for many years. As a composer, Ries left behind eight symphonies (one unpublished), one violin concerto, six piano concertos and many chambers works.
Susan Kagan, a pianist, author, and educator, holds a Ph.D from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her dissertation on the music of Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven’s only composition student, was published by Pendragon Press in 1988, under the title Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven’s Patron, Pupil, and Friend. Susan Kagan taught music history at Hunter College, CUNY, where she founded the New York Chapter of the American Beethoven Society in 1995. In 2002 Susan Kagan was awarded the Antonín Dvořák Award by the Masaryk Academy of the Arts in Prague for her contribution to Czech musical culture. In 2007 she received the Ira F. Brilliant Lifetime Achievement Award for Beethoven Performance and Studies from the American Beethoven Society. She serves on the Advisory Boards of the American Beethoven Society, the American Schubert Institute, and the Schubert Society of the United States.
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