Von Weber, Overture to "Der Freischütz"

Carl Maria von Weber, cousin of Constance, Mozart's wife, was only 27 years old when he became director of the Prague Opera in 1813. He stayed there until 1817 when he went to Dresden to organize and conduct the German Opera. This task would force him to engage in a hard fight with the Italian lyric theater that in those days was monopolizing the audiences. By the way, they considered the idea of a German opera almost a contradiction in terms, despite the existing brilliant tradition of the singspiel, exemplified by Mozart's unparalleled Magic Flute.

Der Freischütz - A landmark opera
However, it was precisely under these circumstances that Weber was to compose a pivotal opera in the evolution of German dramatic music, thus paving the way for the emergence of Richard Wagner's proposal embodied in his "musical dramas" – so called by its author – thirty years later.

The opera in three acts Der Freischütz was begun on July 2, 1817, and finished on May 13, 1820. Regarded as the first German romantic opera, it premiered in Berlin in 1821 under the direction of its author, with immediate success. Shortly afterward it premiered with similar results in Vienna and Dresden.

Carl Maria von Weber

(1786 - 1826)

The Plot

True to his spirit of reading popular legends, Weber took inspiration from a very old Central European story centered on the figure of the "Freischütz", a hunter who makes a pact with the devil to obtain arrows that never miss the target, even if it is the devil himself. To the popular story, Weber added some romantic ingredients: the hunter is in love, and in his struggle to win the love of his beloved he turns to the Devil so that the girl sees him as the most skilled hunter in the whole region.

Today, the work is still performed quite regularly. And its beautiful Overture, as a concert piece, is a must for orchestral ensembles all over the world.

The Orquesta Joven (a very young one), a fraction of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, conducted by Rubén Gimeno.

C.M. von Weber, "Invitation to the Dance"

During his short life (39 years and months) Carl Maria von Weber wrote three operas, all three a success with audiences and critics, thus allowing him to be recognized as the initiator of German romantic opera. But he was also a brilliant pianist, and for the instrument, he wrote sonatas and concertos, as well as a number of short pieces, among which his most popular piano work, Invitation to the Dance, stands out.

Published in 1819, the work is dedicated to his wife, the singer Caroline Brandt, whom he had married two years earlier. At the time, the composer was director of the prestigious Dresden Opera, working intensely on the writing of the work that would be his greatest contribution, the opera Der Freischütz (The Freeshooter), which successfully premiered in 1821.

Carl M. von Weber (1786 - 1826)

The first concert waltz
Invitation to the Dance is the first concert waltz in the history of music, that is to say, it is the first piece in waltz form written to be listened to rather than danced. And despite not being danceable, the piece, with programmatic content, tells the story of a dance: a young man invites a beautiful girl to dance, who graciously accepts. After fluttering around the ballroom to the rhythm of a sequence of waltzes, they say goodbye and never see each other again.

In 1841, Hector Berlioz developed an orchestral version that helped to popularize the piece even more.
Presented here is the original piano version, highly demanding for the performer, not so much for the audience, who can joyfully attend to the generous sequence of simple waltzes. Be careful, however, not to burst into applause after the last resolute chords, as there is still a quiet coda, the real finale, to be heard.

The rendition is by the Russian pianist Peter Laul, at the Marinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.