Piano Concertos, Vol. 5 Naxos 8.572742

• Composer: Ferdinand Ries
• Conductor: Uwe Grodd
• Orchestra: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
• Artist: Christopher Hinterhuber

The fourteen works for piano and orchestra of Ferdinand Ries stand alongside those of Hummel as the finest and 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 eight concertos are works of impressive musical stature. In this fifth and final recording we encounter the first and last of his published concertos and the virtuosic Rondeau brillant, Op 144. “Sparkling performances…the recording is first rate.”

Piano Concertos, Vol. 5 Review

With the five CDs of solo-piano music recorded by Susan Kagan and, now, this fifth CD of music for piano and orchestra , with Christopher Hinterhuber accompanied by a variety of orchestras and conductors, Naxos has shed a brilliant light on a composer who latterly was remembered only because he was a student of Beethoven than for any virtues of his own music.

…Hinterhuber delivers performances that burn with conviction; there’s no point where his concentration and onward surge flutter, where his dedication to the task in hand isn’t clear, and completely convincing. The musicians of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra likewise rise to the occasion, audibly relishing their many moments in the limelight, with Uwe Grodd shaping and directing their efforts with a keen sense of pace and direction. Martin Anderson – International Record Review