Biography - Russia

In the spring of 1811, Ferdinand Ries left Bonn for a long tour of Russia by way of Marburg, Kassel, Hamburg, Copenhagen and Sweden, finally arriving in St. Petersburg, where towards the end of that same year he met up with his former teacher Bernhard Romberg. Together they gave concerts in St. Petersburg, Kiev, Riga, Reval (now Tallinn) and other cities.  However, barely a year later, in the late summer of 1812, Napoleon’s army marched on Moscow, once again thwarting Ries’s plans.

Ries now decided to make his way across Sweden to London, as it was unlikely that Napoleon would invade England as well. While he was in Stockholm, Ries was admitted to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music on 4th March 1813, for his reputation as a virtuoso pianist and excellent composer was now preceding him wherever he went.

Ries continued his journey from Stockhlom to London in 1913. Owing to the unpredictability of the political situation during the Napoleonic wars, the mainland of Europe had lost much of its attraction for artists and musicians. Many other German musicians, too, had already found their way to London (Georg Friedrich Händel, Johann Christian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Johann Baptist Cramer, Jan Ladislav Dussek, Joseph Wölfl) and had achieved high acclaim there.

Bildquelle:

1. Bernhard Romberg
2. Aufnahme von Ferdinand Ries in die Königlich-Schwedische Musikakademie, handschriftliches Protokoll vom 4. März 1813, Statens Musiksamlingar, Stockholm
3. Ferdinand Ries: Streichquintett. op.68, 1816, Andreas und Bernhard Romberg gewidmet.