Ries: Clarinet Trio & Sonatas

Ferdinand Ries may still be known almost exclusively to the musical world as Beethoven’s friend, pupil, secretary and first biographer, but Brilliant Classics have done much to broaden our understanding of this significant figure in the Vienna of the early 19th century with albums of his own compositions, notably his sonatas for violin, cello and flute and his Piano Quintet. In fact the Op.28 Clarinet Trio is one of Ries’s best-known pieces, as well it might be for the mellifluous appeal of its writing for all three instruments. While the top line may also be taken by violin, it belongs most harmoniously to the clarinet’s singing register and hardly suffers by comparison with Beethoven’s Op.11 Trio for the same combination ofinstruments. As grateful as the clarinet writing is the rippling piano part, which supports the other instruments with unfailingly genial warmth before coming to the fore in the finale with some virtuosic passagework as if to demonstrate that the pianist-composer c