He received piano lessons from his father and was instructed by Bernhard Romberg, who also belonged to the Bonn Hofkapelle as a cellist.

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, with a letter of introduction written by the Munich-based composer Carl Cannabich on 29 December 1802.

Ries made his public debut as a pianist in July 1804, playing Beethoven's C minor concerto, Op.

Ries' work as a secretary and a copyist won Beethoven's confidence in negotiations with publishers and he became a fast friend.

[a] Ries feared conscription in the occupying French army (though he was blind in one eye) and so he fled Vienna in September 1805.

Here Ries quickly expanded his catalogue of works (mainly to chamber and piano music, such as the later popular Septet op.

Ries had great difficulty succeeding in the capital city of the French Army and was at times so discouraged that he wanted to give up the profession of music and seek a position in the civil service.

Ries helped Beethoven with the premieres of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and other works for the benefit concert held on 22 December 1808.

In January 1811, Ries left for Russia with the goal of an extended concert trip via Kassel, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm to St. Petersburg.

However, in the summer of 1812, with Napoleon advancing on Moscow, Ries left Russia to tour across Europe, arriving in London in April 1813.

In London too, Ries established himself as a respected piano teacher in the wealthy districts of the city and in 1814 he married Harriet Mangeon (1796–1863), from an opulent family.

In 1818 he was a founding member of the Regent’s Harmonic Institution; a music publishing firm established with the intent of raising funds for the Philharmonic Society and its restoration of the Argyll Rooms.

On the other hand, he wrote now increasingly light fare for the piano: fantasies, rondos, variations, adapted divertimentos and others, mostly about well-known opera arias or popular folk song melodies.

After 1820, he had disagreements with his fellow directors of the Philharmonic Society; Ries was of the opinion that his works were not adequately taken into account in the programming of concerts.

In July 1824, Ries retired to Germany with his English wife and three children, 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, for which he wrote two oratorios, Der Sieg des Glaubens (1829) and Die Könige in Israel (1837), both of which have been recorded.

To the direction of the Dublin Music Festival in 1831 he used a month's stay in London, where he composed his second opera, The Sorceress (published in Germany under the title Liska or the Witch by Gyllensteen).

While one of the few widely circulated recordings of Ries's music was for some time that of his third piano concerto, now all of his symphonies, the other concertos, and a number of chamber works are available on compact disc, and his surviving music for piano and orchestra and chamber works are the focus of ongoing projects on various record labels as well.