FERDINAND RIES (1784-1838): Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas, Vol. 3 - Sonatas in C, Op. 9/2 and in F Sharp Minor, Op. 26 "L'infortunée", The Dream, Op. 49.

Description: This next volume brings us a 26-minute Beethovenian sonata from 1808 - Ries' only sonata given a title - which has numerous structural and compositional affinities with the Pathétique; an 1809 shorter sonata (19 minutes) with a polonaise-like first movement, a terse, taut scherzo and a very brief, dreamy slow movement (which may initially have you thinking of 20th century South American popular dance music!) and a perpetuum mobile sort of finale. The Dream is a 19-minute, single-movement work written in England in 1813 which plainly has some sort of narration behind it (although none is formally offered) and whose Chopinesque figuration and harmonies look forward to early Romanticism. Susan Kagan (piano).