Nepomuk Fe rdinand Ries Fortepiano Fr a n z Limmer OuintetW Nepomuk Fe rdinand Ries Fortepiano Fr a n z Limmer OWuintet R IKO F UKUDA · fortepiano F RANC P OLMAN ·

E LISABETH S MALT ·

JAN I NSINGER · violoncello

P IETER S MITHUIJSEN · Ferdinand Ries (1784 – 1838 ) Ferdinand Ries spent his youth in his native town Bonn, where Beethoven was to make his mark and where the Rombergs were engaged in the orchestra. When the French revolutionary army marched on the town, many people fled and the orchestra was disbanded. But the Ries family had to stay by order of the Kurfürsten, which proved to be beneficial to the musical education of Ferdinand and his brother. Ferdinand received his first musical training from his father, after which he studied the with . He wrote his first compositions at the age of nine. Ries went to Arnsberg to study the organ and the violin and at the age of fifteen he made piano excerpts of Haydn’s oratorios (Die Schöpfung,Die Jahreszeiten) and of Mozart’s Requiem, which were printed by Simrock in Bonn. In 1801 Ferdinand Ries went to Munich, and subsequently left for with a letter of reference from his father in order to pursue his studies under Beethoven. Beethoven took him on as a piano pupil; he had to go to Albrechtsberger to study counterpoint. Ries was greatly inspired by Beethoven and would venerate him for the rest of his life. He dedicated his Opus 1 to him: ‘si je puis justifier un jour aux yeux du public le double et glorieux titre d’élève unique et d’ami d’un si grand maître’ (‘hoping that, in the eyes of the public, one day I will be worthy of the double and glorious title of special pupil and friend of so great a master’). Later he wrote a book about the man and his work, the Biographischen Skizzen über . From 1805 on, Ries stayed in Paris, Kassel, Hamburg and Copenhagen, and worked with considerable success as a composer and pianist. After several concerts in Russia (Kiev, Riga, Reval (Tallinn) and other towns), where he per- formed together with his former teacher Bernhard Romberg, concerts were also planned in Moscow. But due to Napoleon’s campaign and his incursion into the burning Russian capital, Ries had to change his plans and traveled to London. It was the beginning of a ten-year period in England. Ries returned to Bonn and Godesberg, where, amongst other works, he wrote his opera Die Räuberbraut. By that time, Ferdinand Ries was a well- respected and celebrated piano virtuoso and composer. In 1831 and 1832, he went on concert tours to London, Dublin, and Italy. Ignaz Franz Castelli regu- larly wrote about the concerts of the famous piano virtuoso in his Viennese review, the Allgemeine Musikalische Anzeiger. In 1834, Ries was put in charge of the Niederrhein music festival, where he also received great acclaim as a conduc- tor and which landed him the post of director of the municipal orchestra and the singing academy in . Castelli reported on the subject: ‘... Mr. Ferdinand Ries has arrived in Aachen, where he has once more – and a more worthy person is not to be found – been entrusted with the overall direction of this year’s Whitsuntide music festival.’ In 1836, Ries returned to Frankfurt, the town which he regarded as his second home. In 1837, he was again given the directorship of the Niederrhein music festival in Aachen, for which he composed the oratorio Die Könige in Israel. The oratorio, after a libretto by Dr. Wilhelm Smets, was a great success. (Some years later, the same text was put to music by Wilhelm Franz Speer, who had succeeded Franz Limmer as chapel director at the cathedral of Timisoara.) Ries wrote his oratorio Der Sieg des Glaubens shortly thereafter. Ferdinand Ries died on 13 January 1838 in Frankfurt at the age of fifty-four. In spite of his tireless work as pianist and composer, he never achieved the same popularity as his con- temporaries Spohr or Weber. Ries’s originality lies in his incorporating early romantic elements in his work and in par- tially distancing himself from classicism. He was especially accomplished in skillful piano arrangements of European folk tunes, which found wide acclaim: Air russe, Air irlandois, Thème hongrois,Air moldavien,Air autrichien, etc. In his , the piano dominates, noticeably in the Quintet, op. 74. According to his contemporaries, he invented a new musical sign: a long line within one or more bars representing a slackening of the tempo. Ries allegedly first used this sign in the score of his piano Salut au Rhin. The Quintet, op. 74, for violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano was published in London in 1817. The first movement (Grave) begins with a lamento, in which the piano plays a recitative, with melodic elements that are closely related to the Hungarian folk music. During his career as a composer, Ries repeatedly turned to Hungarian melodies. In the Allegro con brio that follows, one bravura piano passage follows the other, while the strings only play a subordinate role. In this movement the piano virtuoso Ries, whose talent won him international admiration, manifests himself. The Larghetto begins with a solo for cello, accompanied only by the piano, after which the piano takes up the theme in a varied form. Several - like passages interrupt the music and lead eventually into the third movement, the Rondo. After an allegro with a brilliant piano part, there is a calm interlude that effectively evokes a medieval atmosphere. Its melody is alternately per- formed by the strings playing pizzicato and by the piano. The transition back to the original theme of the rondo leads through technically demanding pas- sages that run into the thunderous finale.

Franz Limmer (1808 Vienna – 1857 Timisoara/Temeswar) Already at an early stage Limmer’s musical talent was recognized. His parents enrolled him at the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied, among other sub- jects, the cello and the . Following his final exams, along with his cer- tificate, he received a silver medal with the portrait of Mozart. Subsequently, he studied harmony, composition and orchestration, his teacher being none other than the highly esteemed Viennese composer and pedagogue Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried (1776-1841). An early testimony of Limmer’s activity as a com- poser is to be found in a collection of 40 new waltzes for piano, edited in 1824 by the Weiglschen Verlag. Next to short compositions by Beethoven, Josef Böhm, Josef and , Hellmesberger, and Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried, we also find a waltz by ‘J.F. Limmer.’The fact that Limmer’s name appeared in this collection says a lot about the talent of the then only sixteen-year-old com- poser. The Waltz in F major displays in its 16 bars many harmonic turns and chromaticisms, as in a bold and successful attempt to incorporate everything he had learned from Seyfried. Another early work was a Mass in D major, written when Limmer was seventeen. This was premiered in the Augustinerkirche in Vienna, and the reviews praised the composer as a ‘bright meteor in the musical sky.’ Unfortunately, the score has never been traced. However, this work may in fact have been the Missa Solemnis no. 1 in C major, which was still being performed in the cathedral of Timisoara after Limmer’s death, as we know from a newspa- per announcement from 1872. In 1830 Ignaz Franz Castelli reviewed Limmer’s op. 10 in his Allgemeinen Musikalischen Anzeiger. He was delighted by the work. But Castelli also warned: ‘[the work] deserves to be studied and practiced first in order to be fully understood!’ Only one year later, Limmer’s Quartet for four was published.This work too went down well with the critics, as did the Trio for three cellos, which appeared later that same year. The director of the German theatre in Timisoara at the time, Theodor Müller, took notice of the young composer from Vienna and offered him a position as conductor in 1834. Limmer accepted and came to Timisoara, which became his second home. At the time, this ‘small Vienna’ in southeastern Europe was flourishing economically and culturally.The most famous virtuosos performed before an enthusiastic, music- loving crowd, Franz Liszt and Johann Strauss among them. Each year, up to fif- teen operas were performed in the municipal theatre, including Beethoven’s Fidelio and Verdi’s operas. Limmer composed one opera: Die Alpenhütte, after a libretto by his director Alexander Schmidt. The score has not yet been recov- ered, and only an arrangement of the overture for piano duet by Ludwig von Gyika remains. Among other works from the same period are a sonata for piano and violin in G minor, and an overture with the title Jubel-Ouvertüre. In 1835, Franz Limmer was appointed choirmaster of the cathedral of Timisoara. For this church he wrote his best-known work: the Offertorium in A (Justus ut palma florebit) op. 14, for soprano and violin solo, organ, and orchestra. The work was performed in many churches throughout the Austrian- Hungarian Empire. Limmer’s other pieces of church music, such as Veni sancte spiritus, Ecce sacerdos magnus, as well as a song to the Virgin Mary, were still being performed in the Timisoara region during the first half of the twentieth cen- tury.It was not until a few years ago that Limmer’s largest liturgical works were rediscovered: the Requiem in B flat major (1842) and the Vesper-Hymnen. On 31 October 1995 the former was heard once again in the cathedral of Timisoara. After Limmer’s death on 19 January 1857, Leopold Alexander Zellner pub- lished an obituary in his Blätter für Musik,Theater und Kunst (Vienna): ‘… Limmer – a pupil of Seyfried – was an excellent musician, a prudent conductor, and a not untalented composer. He wrote various pieces for the church, among which are a few well-crafted masses, a number of , and much chamber music, especially for cello, an instrument which he played with par- ticular skill. Some of his compositions have been published: graduals, offerto- ries, hymns, as well as chamber music. His quartets for 4 cel- los did not fail to make an impression at the time. Limmer – an open, jovial figure – had an engaging manner and was more cultured than one is accustomed to with musicians.’ Franz Limmer dedicated the Quintet in D minor, Op. 13, to his publisher Raymund Härtel. The original title reads: Grand Quintuor pour le Pianoforte avec Accompagnament [!] de Violon, Viola,Violoncelle et Basse composé et dedié à Monsieur Rémond Härtel par François Limmer. The first movement, Allegro con energico [!], begins with a succinct four bar theme, which is played in tutti. The next bars require a full-fledged virtuoso at the piano. However, this part should not obscure the strings. The second theme brings Schubert to mind. It is first heard in the piano, and then the strings combine it with the main theme. In the development section the first theme is treated by the strings as a fugue, accompanied by the piano in a moto per- petuo with virtuoso runs until the powerful theme takes over. The whole first movement is almost entirely interwoven with sixteenth notes and triplets in the piano part, so that we could with some justification call it a .This aspect is reflected in the title of the composition: ‘… pour le Pianoforte avec Accompagnament de…’ Although the scherzo is marked Allegro vivace assai, its char- acter is rather dramatic thanks to the syncopated main motif and the continuous competition between piano and strings, playing angular lines. In the Trio, the ‘Viennese’ Limmer comes to the fore and there are unmistakable similarities with the music of Johann Strauss senior. Parallels to Limmer’s earlier waltzes can be found in the daring harmonic turns which crop up regularly. In the third movement, following the opening piano solo, the strings hesi- tantly and tentatively move towards their statement of the leading melody. A few cadenza-like piano passages and modulations are followed by a dialogue between the strings, the piano only accompanying. The close of this dream- like movement complies with the heading: Molto con espressione. The melodious theme of the first violin is subtly accompanied by the other string parts, the arpeggios of the piano are played ‘una corda’, and fade away like a sigh. The alla breve final movement is something of a challenge to the listener. In this complicated piece of music we find many of the features of the preceding movements: high technical demands on the interpreters, tricky rhythmic entries, many melodic passages, skillful polyphony and boundless creative imagination. In addition to that, Limmer heightens the climax with a più stret- to, a device which we can find in a number of his compositions. In every respect, the quintet as a whole is one of the best creations of its kind, composed by a young musician who was rightly characterized as a ‘bright meteor in the musical sky.’ The NEPOMUK FORTEPIANO QUINTET was founded in 1999 by Riko Fukuda and Pieter Smithuijsen to play music for the unusual combination of fortepiano, violin, viola, cello and double bass. For most listeners this instru- mentation is associated primarily with Schubert's Trout Quintet. It is much less well known that Schubert was not the first composer to write for this combination; several others preceded him, including Johann Nepomuk Hummel, whose quintet is said to have given Schubert the idea to write for these five instruments, and in whose honour the Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet is named. Research by members of the quintet in various European libraries has so far brought to light nearly twenty little-known (or complete- ly unknown) quintets from the years 1800-1870. The Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet believes that only by performance on authentic instruments can the sound world of these works be brought to life; the lighter bass register of the fortepiano, for example, balances perfectly with the sound of the double bass. The pianos played by Riko Fukuda all date from the time and place in which the various pieces were written and performed, and the string players all use gut strings. A permanent collaboration with piano restorer and collector Edwin Beunk enables the ensemble to play with any type of piano that is suit- able to the concert programme.

RIKO FUKUDA studied oboe and piano at the Toho-Gakuën conservatory in Japan.After attending a concert in Tokyo by the Orchestra of the 18th Century, led by Frans Brüggen, she decided to base herself in the Netherlands. A grant enabled her to study with Stanley Hoogland at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where she specialised in fortepiano. Riko Fukuda is in much demand as a soloist and as a chamber musician. Her solo recordings of works by Pinto and Dussek on the Olympia label have met with great acclaim, and more recent- ly she released two CDs of the piano sonatas of Haydn on Brilliant Classics. She has performed frequently at the Early Music Festival in Utrecht and appears regularly at other fes- tivals in Europe and America, including performances in col- laboration with the violinist Sergiu Luca. She is a founder member of the Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet.

FRANC POLMAN studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Bouw Lemkes. He attended masterclasses with Sandor Végh and Berl Senofsky and, in early music, with Jaap Schröder, Lucy van Dael, Elisabeth Wallfisch and Fabio Biondi. With the European Community Chamber Orchestra he toured Europe and the far east, appearing as soloist with them in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Italy. For 13 years he was a member of Amsterdam Sinfonietta.As concertmaster he par- ticipated in Covent Garden Festival Orchestra in London, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam and in Musica ad Rhenum, and he is principal second violinist of the Mozart Akademie Amsterdam. He performs regularly with Les Musiciens du Louvre, Musica Antiqua Köln, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and The Raglan Baroque Players. Besides the Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet, he plays as a chamber musician in the Van Swieten Society, the Aeole Broken Consort and in a duo with Riko Fukuda.

ELISABETH SMALT studied with Cees Dekker and Wim ten Have and contin- ued her studies with Nobuko Imai and Ervin Schiffer. She took masterclasses with Thomas Riebl, Kim Kashkashian, Atar Arad and the Alban Berg Quartet. She played with Amsterdam Sinfonietta and, as a freelancer, with the Asko Ensemble, the Schoenberg Ensemble and the Nieuw Ensemble. In recent years she has concentrated exclusively on chamber and solo performances. Her committment to exploring the role of the viola in different historical periods has led her to work with ensembles of contrasting nature, including the Baroque ensemble Musica ad Rhenum, the Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet, a duo with Riko Fukuda, the Brussels ensemble Oxalys (late Romantic reper- toire and French Impressionism), the Barton Workshop (American experi- mental music) and the Zephyr Kwartet (contemporary string quartets). As a soloist she has recently performed music by Mozart, Berio, Benjamin, Grisey and Partch.

JAN INSINGER studied with Lenian Benjamins, and later with Elias Arizcuren at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. He completed his studies with Dmitri Ferschtman. During this time he became a member of the European Community Youth Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Jan Insinger has performed on several occasions as soloist with various ensembles and orchestras in Holland. He played for several years with the Giotto Ensemble and was a member of the chamber orchestra Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Presently he is principal cellist of the Holland Symfonia. His interest in historical performance practice led him to play with the Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet and with the van Swieten Society, an ensemble which specialises in the classical and early romantic repertoire. He also performs regularly on the viola da gamba.

PIETER SMITHUIJSEN studied double bass with Anthony Woodrow at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He is a member of the Asko-Schönberg Ensemble, with whom he recently recorded the complete chamber works of Ligeti and Varèse with the conductors Reinbert de Leeuw and Riccardo Chailly respectively. He is also a member of the Maarten Altena Ensemble, and performs with ensem- bles such as Musikfabrik Düsseldorf and Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt. He plays regularly with the Nederlands Kamerorkest, the Radio Kamerorkest and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Pieter Smithuijsen has been involved for some years with historical performance practice, and is a founder member of the Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet. NEPOMUK FORTEPIANO OUINTETW