Ferdinand Ries: Piano concerto No.8, in A Flat Major, Op.151, Christopher Hinterhuber

Ferdinand Ries - Piano concerto No.8 in A-Flat Major, Op.151, ‘Gruss an den Rhein’, Christopher Hinterhuber – piano, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Uwe Grodd (conductor)
I. Allegro con moto – 00:00
II. Larghetto con moto – 12:38
III. Rondo: Allegro molto – 17:32

Ferdinand Ries (28 November 1784 [baptised] – 13 January 1838) was a German composer. Ries was a friend, pupil and secretary of Ludwig van Beethoven.

“As one of the greatest pianists in Europe of his time and a composer of exceptional ability it is surprising that the name Ferdinand Ries is not better known today. Indeed, the neglect of most of his major works is even more inexplicable given his long association with Beethoven. In most other circumstances this would have prompted an exhaustive study of his music but in Ries's case this has not happened. One of the reasons for this may lie in his publication of an important book of reminiscences about Beethoven which has proved to be of such compelling interest to scholars that they have concentrated on it rather than his music. Over the years there have been sporadic performances and recordings of some of Ries's chamber works and, more recently, of his very impressive symphonies. The concertos, however, have until now remained curiously unexplored.
During Ries's three years of study with Beethoven he acted frequently as his secretary and copyist which, of course, lent great credibility to his later writings. Beethoven did not teach Ries composition — for that he went to Albrechtsberger, Kapellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral — but his influence on Ries's development as a composer nonetheless was profound. Beethoven also smoothed his introduction into Viennese musical circles first by securing for him a position as pianist to Count Browne in Baden, one of Beethoven's own patrons, and in organizing his debut (as Beethoven's pupil) on 1st August 1804 at which he gave a performance of the C Minor Piano Concerto, Op. 37, with cadenzas of his own composition.

Ries published nine concertos, the first for violin and the remaining eight works for the piano. The works were numbered sequentially in their order of publication which creates some confusion.
The Piano Concerto in A flat, Op. 151, was composed at Bad Godesberg in 1826, two years after his return from London. Ries subtitled the work ‘Gruss an den Rhein’, an affectionate tribute to the area in which he grew up, and the broad, gentle sweep of the first movement is clearly intended to depict the River Rhine. Although the movement is still organized along the same structural lines as Beethoven's concertos it inhabits a very different emotional world. The piano writing too is very different, looking forward to that of Chopin rather than back to Beethoven's great middle period masterpieces. The mood of serenity persists in the exquisite Larghetto, a movement that possesses an almost Beethovenian sense of gravitas, but it is dispelled at once by the ferocious opening to the finale. Ries prefaces a brilliant and ingenious Rondo with a dazzling cadenza introduced by the full orchestra. The movement demands not only a high degree of virtuosity and showmanship from the soloist but also an intelligent musicality to bring out all the subtleties and beauties of Ries's writing for the instrument.” (from Album Notes by Allan Badley)

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