Ferdinand Ries was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Life

Born into a musical family of Bonn, Ries was a friend and pupil of Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

 who published in 1838 a collection of reminiscences of his teacher, co-written with Franz Wegeler

Franz Gerhard Wegeler

Franz Gerhard Wegeler was a German physician from Bonn, who was a childhood friend of Ludwig van Beethoven.He studied medicine at the Universities of Bonn and Vienna. After finishing his studies in Austria, he returned to Bonn, where he became a professor and rector at the university...

. He was also a composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 who left eight symphonies

Symphony

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

, a violin concerto

Violin concerto

A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...

, nine piano concerto

Piano concerto

A piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...

s and numerous other works in many genres, including 26 string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

s. Of these, the symphonies, some chamber works—most of them with piano—and his piano concertos have been recorded, demonstrating a style which is not surprisingly somewhere between that of the Classic and early Romantic eras.

The French dissolved the Electoral court of Bonn and disbanded its orchestra, but in the early months of 1803 the penniless Ries managed to reach Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, with a letter of introduction to Beethoven, who had received some early instruction at Bonn from Ries's father, Franz Anton. Beethoven took great care of the young man, teaching him piano, sending him to Albrechtsberger

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger was an Austrian musician who was born at Klosterneuburg, near Vienna.He originally studied music at Melk Abbey and philosophy at a Benedictine seminary in Vienna and became one of the most learned and skillful contrapuntists of his age...

 for harmony and composition and securing for him positions as piano tutor in aristocratic households in Baden and Silesia. Ries made his public debut as a pianist in July 1804, playing Beethoven's C minor concerto, Op. 37, with his own cadenza, to glowing reviews.

Ries worked for Beethoven as secretary and copyist, winning Beethoven's confidence in negotiations with publishers and becoming a fast friend. One of the most famous stories told about Ries is connected with the first rehearsal of the Eroica Symphony

Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat major , also known as the Eroica , is a landmark musical work marking the full arrival of the composer's "middle-period," a series of unprecedented large scale works of emotional depth and structural rigor.The symphony is widely regarded as a mature...

 , when Ries, during the performance, mistakenly believed that the horn player had come in too early and said so, aloud—infuriating Beethoven.

But Ries feared conscription in the occupying French army (though he was blind in one eye) and fled Vienna in September 1805. He spent two years in Paris before returning to Vienna, then concertized his way about Europe, landing in London in 1813. There he spent the next eleven years. Johann Peter Salomon

Johann Peter Salomon

Johann Peter Salomon was a German violinist, composer, conductor and musical impresario.-Life:...

, the great friend and patron of Haydn— who had formerly played with Franz Anton Ries in the court orchestra at Bonn—included Ries regularly in his Philharmonic concert series, where a review praised his "romantic wildness"

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

.

During these London years he never lost touch with Beethoven and had a role in the London publications of many works of Beethoven after the peace of 1815, including the 1822 commission from the Philharmonic Society

Royal Philharmonic Society

The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...

 that resulted in the Choral Symphony.

In 1824 Ries retired to Germany with his English wife, Harriet Mangeon, but returned to musical life in Frankfurt am Main as composer and conductor. In 1834 he was appointed head of the city orchestra and Singakademie in Aachen

Aachen

Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...

, for whom he wrote two oratorios, Der Sieg des Glaubens (1829) and Die Könige in Israel (1837), the latter of which has been recorded. In addition, he was festival director of the Lower Rhenish Music Festival eight times - between 1824 and 1837.

Cecil Hill wrote a scholarly thematic catalog, listed below, of this composer's works: for each work he provided incipit

Incipit

Incipit is a Latin word meaning "it begins". The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is the first few words of its opening line. In music, it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits...

s (opening themes) for each movement, dedications, known early reviews, and known dates of composition.

While one of the few widely circulated recordings of Ries's music was for some time that of his third piano concerto, all of his symphonies and a number of chamber works are now available on compact disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 and his surviving music for piano and orchestra and chamber works are the focus of ongoing projects on various record labels as well.

Symphonies

• No. 1 in D major, op. 23 (1809)
• No. 2 in C minor, op. 80 (1814)
• No. 3 in E flat major, op. 90 (1816)
• No. 4 in F major, op. 110 (1818)
• No. 5 in D minor
  Symphony No. 5 (Ries)
  Ferdinand Ries wrote Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 112, in London in 1813. It was the second symphony Ries wrote. It was first performed at a Philharmonic Society concert on Valentine's Day 1814...
  
  , op. 112 (1813)
• No. 6 in D major, op. 146 (1822)
• an unpublished symphony in E flat major, WoO 30 (1822)
• No. 7 in A minor, op. 181 (1835)

Concertos

• Piano Concerto No. 2
• Piano Concerto No. 3 in C sharp minor
  Piano Concerto No. 3 (Ries)
  Piano Concerto No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 55 by German composer Ferdinand Ries was written around 1813. It was composed in the proto-Romantic style, similar to the concertos of Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and anticipates stylistic developments of future Romantic composers.-Composition date:The...
  
  , op. 55 (pub. 1826)
• Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor, op. 115 (1809, pub. 1823)
• Piano Concerto No. 5 in D major, op. 120 'Concerto Pastoral' (c.1816, pub. 1823)
• Piano Concerto No. 6 in C major, op. 123 (1806, pub. 1824)
• Piano Concerto No. 7 in A minor, op. 132 'Abschieds-Concert von England' (1823)
• Piano Concerto No. 8 in A flat major, op. 151 'Gruss an den Rhein' (1826)
• Piano Concerto No. 9, op. 177 (1832)
• Grand Variations on 'Rule, Britannia', op. 116 (1817)
• Introduction et Variations Brillantes, op. 170 (pub. 1832)
• Introduction et Rondeau Brillant, WoO 54 (1835)
• Violin Concerto No.1 in E minor op. 24
• Concerto for 2 horns in E flat major WoO 19

Chamber music

• Octet in F major, op. 12 (1808)
• Piano Quartet in F minor, op. 13 (1809)
• Piano Trio in E flat major, op. 2
• Piano Trio in C minor, op. 143
• Cello Sonata in A major, op. 21
• Introduction and a Russian Dance for the Piano Forte and Violoncello in E flat major, op. 113/1 (1823)
• Romance for cello & pianoforte in G major (arrangement of the 2nd mvt. of piano sonata, op. 86/2) (1819)
• Clarinet Trio in B flat major, op. 28 (1809)
• Clarinet Sonata in G minor, op. 29 (1808)
• Grand Septuor in E flat major for piano, clarinet, 2 horns, violin, cello and double bass, op. 25 (1812)
• Horn Sonata in F major, op. 34 (1811)
• 3 String Quartets, op. 70 (1812, rewritten 1815)
• Grand Sextuor for 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass & piano in C major, Op.100
• Cello Sonata in G minor, op. 125
• Grand Otetto in A flat major for piano, violin, viola, clarinet, horn, bassoon, cello and double bass, op. 128 (1816, pub. 1831)
• Flute Quartets Nos. 1-3, op. 145

Piano music

• Piano Sonata in C major, op. 1 no. 1 (1806)
• Piano Sonata in A minor, op. 1 no. 2 (1803-4)
• 2 Piano Sonatinas, op. 5
• Grande Sonate in D major, op. 9 no. 1
• Grande Sonata Fantaisie in F sharp minor, 'L'Infortune' op. 26

External links

• Brief biography
• Biography from Naxos site
• Ferdinand Ries Society in Bonn: English German