Ferdinand Ries, Brief an Franz Gerhard Wegeler in Koblenz, Frankfurt am Main, 1. Januar 1836, Autograph

Ries sends Wegeler two copies of his songs op. 179 published by Dunst. He does not approve of the edition's quality, calling Dunst a donkey ("Dunst ist ein Esel"). Also, the harmonica (see W 72) was badly repaired by Dunst. Dunst had given Ries the handwritten piano excerpt of Beethoven's "Knight's ballet", WoO 1, in order to prepare an edition for him: "Das kleine Ballet von Beethoven habe ich zum Durchsehen. Das ganze Klavier arrangement ist von seiner Hand geschrieben, und überschrieben, er muß aber noch sehr jung gewesen seyn, denn er hat noch große Noten /:wenigstens meistens:/ gemacht./ Sonst ist aber wenig daran. Ich habe Dunst versprochen die Korrektur zu besorgen. In welchem Jahr, mag er es wohl komponiert haben?" (I have Beethoven's small ballet for review. The whole piano arrangement has been written by hand but obviously he was still very young as the notes are rather big, at least most of them. I promised Dunst to correct it. I wonder when he composed the piece.) Ries invites Wegeler to Frankfurt. He wants to take him to the museum and ask opera director Karl Ferdinand Wilhelm Guhr (1787-1848) to give a nice Beethoven symphony. With reference to the poor skills of the singers, he advises against going to the theatre: die "Sängerinnen sind kaum zum Anhören". (FG)