Ries: Piano Concertos Volume 4

The fourteen works for piano and orchestra of Ferdinand Ries stand alongside those of Hummel as the most important of their kind from the early decades of the 19th Century. Intensely lyrical and yet displaying at times a rugged Beethovenian grandeur, Ries’s concertos are works of impressive musical stature. The three works featured on this recording span the years 1809 to 1835 and include the fascinating Concerto Pastoral, Op. 120, and the Introduction et Rondeau Brillant, WoO54, composed at the end of Ries’s long and brilliant career as a pianist-composer.