Ries: Complete Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas, Vol. 1

Featuring

Susan Kagan
Ferdinand Ries

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Performer Biography

Susan Kagan, the pianist on this album, holds a Ph.D from the City University of New York and founded the New York Chapter of the American Beethoven Society.

Composer Biography

Ferdinand Ries, the composer, was a family friend, piano student, and early biographer of Ludwig van Beethoven, having connections with him in Bonn, Vienna, and London.

Performer Biography

Susan Kagan was awarded the Antonín Dvořák Award in 2002 for her contribution to Czech musical culture and the Ira F. Brilliant Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 for Beethoven Performance and Studies.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Ries's piano sonatas anticipated the style of early Romantic composers like Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Chopin, incorporating elements such as poignant harmonic language, expressive melodies, and brilliant figuration.

Compositional Technique

Significant characteristics of Ries's style, many of which became hallmarks of Romanticism, include dramatic dynamic contrasts, abrupt changes in tempo and mood, harmonic shifts, and radical use of the sustaining pedal.

Composer Biography

Ferdinand Ries studied piano with Beethoven in Vienna around 1803, and Beethoven also sent him to Johann Albrechtsberger, a noted theorist-composer, for composition lessons.