Second instalment in the ongoing complete Ferdinand Ries (1784–1838) symphony cycle by Tapiola Sinfonietta and conductor Janne Nisonen includes the composer’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5. Often remembered in music history as Beethoven’s ‘right hand’, these new recordings by the Tapiola Sinfonietta reveal a major symphonist. The first volume in the series has received oustanding reviews in the German music press.

Although numbered as the composer’s fifth, the D minor symphony dates from 1813 and was the composer’s second symphony to be completed. The symphony was Ferdinand Ries debut together with the London Philharmonic Society which was to be an important influence in Ries’ career for the next eleven years after Ries had settled down into the city. First performance of the symphony was a major success and according to a contemporary review, “This [symphony] is one of those works which announce the genius of its author”. Ries was being favourably compared to the likes of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Ries’s Symphony in F major No. 4, Op. 110 was composed in London in 1818 and, like Op. 112, published in Leipzig by Breitkopf und Härtel in 1823. The symphony, for reasons unknown, did not receive a success similar to his 5th Symphony. In today’s context in this work Ries reveals himself to be a symphonist thoroughly deserving of the praise lavished on him after the premiere of Op. 112 five years earlier.