Ferdinand Ries: Complete Chamber Music For Flute & Strings. Vol. 3

Complete Works for Flute and Strings Vol. 3. Ferdinand Ries presents himself as a master of chamber music with the three extraordinarily imaginatively composed works on Vol. 3 of our edition of his complete works for flute and strings. On the one hand he is firmly rooted in the tradition of his great classical models. On the other hand he takes the step to a poetic musical worldview that by no means corresponded to the mainstream between 1815 and 1830. Some time before Novalis had written: »The world must be romanticized.« Along with two more flute quartets designed very much in the classical style but also already displaying newer musical expressive forms, his only, highly emotional Flute Quintet op. 107 is heard here, a work composed by Ries in London in 1818. As in the great majority of flute quintets, it is scored with two violas, which results in a practically orchestral sound picture. The composer makes manifold use of the option of setting the stringed instruments in opposition to the flute. Nevertheless, the flute is treated as the equal partner of the stringed instruments, which all take part in the changing functions of solo and accompaniment. Here too the Ardinghellos offer »dialoguing that is finely heard out, trim playing with a minimum of vibrato, and the most careful, delightful phrasing« (klassik-heute of Vol. 3 in March 2019).