Composer · 1784 - 1838
Ferdinand Ries
Biography
Ferdinand Ries
(b Bonn, bap. 28 Nov 1784; d Frankfurt, 13 Jan 1838). Pianist, composer and copyist, eldest son of (3) Franz Ries.
He was the most celebrated member of the family. He was taught the piano and the violin by his father and the cello by Bernhard Romberg from the age of five. Because of the dissolution of the electoral court in 1794 Ferdinand failed to receive a promised position in the orchestra. Instead he spent most of the next seven years at home studying with his father, apart from a fruitless nine-month period in Arnsberg about 1797 studying with a man to whom he ended up teaching the violin. In 1801 he studied in Munich with Peter Winter for a short time, earning money by copying music. With this he kept himself, paid his fees and saved enough to go to Vienna in October of that year, armed with a letter of introduction from Franz Anton. Beethoven received his old teacher’s son well, and gave him much help.