Ries: Der Sieg des Glaubens

Das Kleine Konzert, Max, Hermann, Rheinische Kantorei, soliści

CPO 777738

Beethoven's gifted pupil Ferdinand Ries was never entirely forgotten, but it is only in recent years that cpo and Hermann Max have dedicated themselves with great success to the rediscovery of this spirited late classicist and romanticist. His oratorio Der Sieg des Glaubens (The Triumph of Faith), heard here for the first time since 1829, celebrates the triumph of »believers of gentle heart.« Ries wrote this work in response to a commission for a composition for the Lower Rhine Music Festival in Aachen in 1829. Johann Baptist Rousseau (1807-67), a man of letters esteemed in the Rhineland (not to be confused with the similarly named French poet Jean-Baptiste Rousseau), managed entirely without a continuous plot in this work and instead developed a philosophical discourse dealing with the power of faith and the grace of God. The cast of characters may be said to have been depersonalized. They are essentially different only because of their membership in the large group of believers or the small group of unbelievers. Ries brings out this aspect in his setting with many impressive choral and ensemble numbers and repeatedly divides the Chorus of Believers into a female choir and a male choir. The arias rely less on virtuosity than on an intensive interpretation of the text following the verbal inflection. Something similar also applies to the choral numbers, which are often spiced with an highly effective, harmonically attractive orchestral part. The Aachen premiere was an overwhelming success for Ferdinand Ries, who shortly thereafter wrote »with very great joy« to his brother Joseph in London: »My oratorio was received in such a way that the whole hall trembled – it is the greatest and most highly effective work that I have written, but I could not have imagined the reception in this way; everybody was absolutely wild and true jubilation reigned everywhere.«

SACD x 1

CPO

3/23/13

761203773824