Ferdinand Ries was Beethoven's student and an early biographer, criticized by his teacher for imitating him too closely. As flutist and annotator John Herrick Littlefield noted in the booklet for this group of flute quartets, Ries probably took the criticism as a compliment. These quartets were written late in Ries' life, during his retirement in the Rhineland, and they show how long it took for Beethoven's innovations to be fully appreciated. Only the middle quartet, the Flute Quartet in E minor, Op. 145/2, could be called ...
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Ferdinand Ries was Beethoven's student and an early biographer, criticized by his teacher for imitating him too closely. As flutist and annotator John Herrick Littlefield noted in the booklet for this group of flute quartets, Ries probably took the criticism as a compliment. These quartets were written late in Ries' life, during his retirement in the Rhineland, and they show how long it took for Beethoven's innovations to be fully appreciated. Only the middle quartet, the Flute Quartet in E minor, Op. 145/2, could be called really Beethovenian. Its third-movement menuetto (track 7), compact and cleverly structured, could be taken for early Beethoven. Ries had a fair gift for a spun-out melody, as well, and in general his inner movements are the most effective; the outer sonata forms and rondos do not have the Beethovenian intensity that manifests itself as playfulness. Nevertheless, the buyer interested in the culture of the early nineteenth century will find this music intriguing to listen to; Ries...
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