Ries, Ferdinand (1784-1838)

German pianist, violinist, and composer. He studied piano with Beethoven 1802-04. He later lived in London for several years, where he acted as Beethoven's agent in dealings with music publishers. Back in Germany, he was involved with F Wegeler in writing a biography of Beethoven.

He was taught piano and violin by his father, Franz Anton Ries (1755-1846), who also taught Beethoven, and studied cello with B Romberg. After a short course in composition with Peter Winter at Munich in 1801, he went to Vienna that year, and studied piano with Beethoven and composition with Albrechtsberger, and became pianist to Counts Browne and Lichnowsky. Later he lived by turns in Paris, Vienna, Kassel, Stockholm, and St Petersburg. In 1813-24 he lived in London, where he married an Englishwoman and played, taught, and composed. He bought a property at Godesberg, near Bonn, but in 1826 went to live at Frankfurt, where he returned again after two years as a conductor at Aachen, 1834-36. He conducted several of the Lower Rhine Festivals.

Works Opera Die Räuberbraut (1828), Liska (The Sorceress, 1831), and Eine Nacht auf dem Libanon (1834); oratorios Der Sieg des Glaubens and Die Könige Israels Other eight symphonies, four overtures; eight piano concertos; 26 string quartets; eight string quintets, three piano quartets, five piano trios, octet, septet, and other chamber music; 20 duets for violin and piano; ten sonatas and many other works for piano.