FREE UK SHIPPING OVER £30!

The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

In praise of... Weber

  4th May 2021

4th May 2021


The big musical anniversaries tend to revolve around composers’ births and deaths: the centenary of Debussy’s death was marked in 2018; last year (just in case you missed it) saw Beethoven’s 250th birthday celebrated more by recordings than by the jamboree of live performances originally planned; and this year marks 50 years since the death of Stravinsky, and 500 years since that of Josquin Desprez. Occasionally, however, individual musical works of landmark significance are celebrated: the centenary of Wagner’s epic Ring cycle was marked in 1976 by the controversial Boulez-Chéreau production (now itself regarded as a classic), and in 2013 one could barely move for recordings and live performances marking the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

18 June 2021 marks the bicentenary of Carl Maria von Weber’s operatic masterpiece Der Freischütz, a work which, with its lively combination of folk milieu, fantastic sorcery and stage effects, brilliant orchestration and exuberant melodic invention, played a crucial part in the development of German Romantic opera at a time when Italian opera still overwhelmingly held sway with audiences. Following its Berlin premiere, it soon took first Germany and then the whole of Europe by storm, and became a perennial staple of the repertoire in German opera houses large and small.

Nothing in Weber’s earlier output quite prepares one for Der Freischütz. He was born in 1786 into a touring theatrical family, but his particular musicality was evident from early on. His musical education was inevitably of a fragmentary nature, yet his teachers included Michael Haydn and Abbé Vogler. He was most accomplished at the keyboard, but he also played the guitar, and the theatrical bug remained with him throughout his tragically short life. At the age of just 17 he was appointed director of the Breslau (now Wrocław) Opera, but an enforced absence saw his reforms there (mainly based on the works of Mozart) undone. His own earliest operatic efforts survive in only fragmentary form, but by the time of the Singspiel Abu Hassan (1810-11), for all its clear influence of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, he was beginning to find an individual voice. Two highly effective symphonies date from a period spent in Karlsruhe in 1806-07, but it was a longer period of non-theatrical activity as a touring piano virtuoso that saw the composition of his two piano concertos, as well as the Concertino and two concertos for the celebrated clarinettist Heinrich Baermann, which to this day remain central works in the clarinet repertoire.

Apart from Der Freischütz, 1821 also saw the composition of the F minor Konzertstück, which launched the Romantic vogue for the single-movement, multi-section concertante work for solo piano and remained a favourite with pianists well into the twentieth century. Weber’s later operas, the ‘grand heroic-romantic’ Euryanthe (Vienna, 1823) and Oberon, or The Elf King’s Oath (London, 1826), though dramatically flawed, contain some of his finest music, and are well worth investigating further, as are his songs, including Die Temperamente beim Verluste der Geliebten (1816), one of the earliest song-cycles.

Weber’s health, always fragile, suffered a fatal turn as he prepared to travel home to Dresden (where he had directed the opera since 1817) from London, after personally conducting the premiere run of Oberon at Covent Garden, and he died on 5 June 1826, some five months short of his fortieth birthday. His life may have been brief, but his influence was enormous: his brilliance as an orchestrator alone had a huge impact on both Berlioz and Debussy, while his influence on the development of German Romantic opera (and on Marschner and Wagner in particular) was enormous. More widely, his influence was felt by composers as diverse as, Mendelssohn and Chopin, Meyerbeer and Mahler, Stravinsky and Hindemith.

Two centuries on, Der Freischütz remains a much-loved favourite of the German operatic repertoire, with notable recordings ranging from Furtwängler, Keilberth and Jochum to Kubelík, Carlos Kleiber (whose father, Erich, was a notable Weber champion) and Harnoncourt. Yet for those wishing to explore further, there is so much more to Weber than Der Freischütz alone: the concertante clarinet works are an excellent place to start, while both Euryanthe and Oberon are available on disc, if rarely performed (even pre-COVID) in the opera house. The piano concertos have enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years, while the songs, which crop up individually from time to time, were the subject of a groundbreaking 1976 recording by tenor Martyn Hill with the late Christopher Hogwood at the fortepiano, now available on Australian Eloquence. Wherever you choose to dip in, you will find Weber’s life and output eminently deserving of celebration.

A few key recordings:

- Janowitz, Mathis, Schreier, Adam, Staatskapelle Dresden / Kleiber (DG 4838706)

- Kaufmann, Martinpelto, Davislim, ORR / Gardiner (Decca 4783488)

- Hoeprich, Orchestra of the 18th Century / Van Waas (Glossa GCD921128)

- Demidenko, SCO / Mackerras (Hyperion CDA66729)

- Hill, Hogwood (Australian Eloquence ELQ4805587)

Latest Posts


Valete: Pollini, Eötvös & Janis

27th March 2024

The past fortnight has brought news of the deaths of three major figures from the post-war musical scene: two pianists and a composer-conductor.

Anyone who follows the classical music headlines even slightly will have learned of the death at the age of 82 of Maurizio Pollini. He was simply one of the greatest pianists of the post-war era. Born on 5 January 1942 in Milan, he was raised in a home environment rich in culture. His father Gino was a leading modern architect, his mother Renata Melotti a pianist, and her... read more

read more

The Resurrection of Stainer’s ‘Crucifixion’

20th March 2024

Widely vilified as the epitome of mawkish late-Victorian religious sentimentality, John Stainer’s The Crucifixion was first performed in St Marylebone Parish Church on 24 February 1887 at the beginning of Lent. Composed as a Passion-themed work within the capabilities of parish choirs as part of the Anglo-Catholic revival, its publication by Novello led to its phenomenal success as churches throughout England quickly took it up. It also spawned many imitations – such as John Henry Maunder’s Olivet to Calvary – which lacked... read more

read more

Label News: Chandos goes to Naxos

14th March 2024

With the recently announced acquisition of Chandos Records by the founder of Naxos Records, Klaus Heymann, another leading independent classical label has passed to a larger company. Just last year, both the Swedish label BIS and the British firm Hyperion were snapped up, by Apple Music and Universal Music respectively. The press release issued to confirm the situation with Chandos spoke of a ‘synergy’ between Chandos and Heymann’s team, and stressed that ‘the label will remain independent long-term’. Chandos is... read more

read more

Early Music Round-Up

6th March 2024

As you might have gathered from some of the releases that have featured in our recent reviews and columns, 2024 has got off to an exceptionally strong start for lovers of early music. Consort music by Matthew Locke, violin concertos by Vivaldi, opera and oratorio by Handel (Alcina and Theodora) have already given us many hours of listening pleasure. And, even restricting ourselves to Handel, the delights don’t stop there. Two recent releases on the Delphian label have been especially interesting: violinist Bojan... read more

read more

Accessible Music?

28th February 2024

The news that changes are afoot at BBC Radio 3 under its new Controller, Sam Jackson, has raised alarm in some quarters. The official announcement declares – in language that W1A’s Ian Fletcher would be proud of – that ‘Distinctiveness and ambition are at the heart of the new Radio 3 schedule’, but for those who can bear to read further, it’s clear that magazine-style programmes featuring interviews interspersed with music have received a boost. Two 2024 centenaries are to be celebrated: conductor Neville Marriner and... read more

read more
View Full Archive