BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, July 14, 1824

The Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr.37 (September 9, 1824) at 602 reports that today “the famous composer and pianist Ferdinand Ries from London is with his appealing family in Godesberg (a health resort near Bonn), to henceforth live near his and his teacher Beethoven’s and [Johann Peter] Salomon’s birthplace, with his father, his family, and art. We can hope that his connections with the local experts on art will have an encouraging effect on the music industry of our city and area. We give him a friendly welcome to the soil of the Fatherland.”

The attached portrait of Ferdinand Ries was engraved by Charles Picart in London in 1824, just before Ries returned to the Rhineland. Ries handed out copies of this portrait, so he must have felt it was a good likeness.