Weber Overture to Silvana

Overture to Silvana

Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

Carl Maria von Weber might seem to be a familiar name in music history, but anyone skimming through an account of this remarkable man’s career will be astounded to discover how little is generally known about his life, as well as how little of his finest music in ever heard. Part of the problem is due to the fact that Weber’s most important works, the operas, are rarely performed outside of Germany, while the instrumental music tends to be overshadowed by that of his immediate contemporaries, Beethoven and Schubert.

Weber was born in a family filled with professional musicians---the aristocratic “von” was a fanciful embellishment added to the family name by his father. Linked by marriage with Mozart, whose wife Constanze was a relative, he showed remarkable musical gifts at an early age, and began his professional career in opera as a teenager, becoming a Kapellmeister before the age of eighteen, with positions in Breslau, Stuttgart and Prague, later Berlin and Dresden, where he would be a predecessor of Richard Wagner. Before the age of thirty Weber had held a dizzying succession of appointments, with tours and appearances in every important city in the German-speaking world. Along the way there were commissions for woodwind concerti, symphonies, songs, chamber music and piano works, including the “Invitation to the Dance, ” today best-known through the orchestration of Hector Berlioz, a passionate advocate for Weber’s works.

By the time Weber was in his mid-twenties he was deeply absorbed in the emerging “Romantic” movement, heralded by the work of writers and poets such as Byron and Scott (in translation), and in Germany such figures as E. T. A. Hoffmann and Goethe, both of whom Weber came to know. As with composers such as Berlioz and Schumann, Weber was keenly involved in the world of literature, even writing articles, poems, sketches for a novel, and important musical criticism.

In his short life Weber composed ten operas, seven of which survive, although only the last three keep their place in the repertory: Der Freischutz, Euryanthe, and Oberon---although even these are seldom heard outside Germany. Composed in 1808-10, Silvana has totally disappeared into obscurity, even the overture absolutely unknown in concert programs.

(The writer of these notes has long been amused by pretentious claims by concert organizations that a performance of a little-known work will be “the first performance in America in the 20^th century.” While no such claim is made with regard to this overture, that might actually be the case tonight!) As for the opera’s plot and general character, a bit of sleuthing reveals a fairly predictable early 19^th century story, with a twist: the trials and tribulations of a young hero betrothed to a woman he doesn’t love, while at the same time gripped by a hopeless passion for a beautiful young woman, Silvana----who happens to be mute!

By the end of Act III the heroine recovers her voice, and in a happy ending the true lovers are united in marriage.

The overture is expertly crafted, although only occasionally showing signs of the surging emotional character to be found in Weber’s more mature opera overtures. Opening with a brief slow introduction, a sprightly principal theme is heard, first softly, then in full orchestral colours. There follows a secondary theme which is introduced by a horncall figure (perhaps the most distinctly Weberian touch), with graceful, lyrical melodic figures passed among the wind, then becoming assertive and dramatic in intensity. There is a tiny development, gliding quickly back to a straight-forward recapitulation, concluding with a brilliant, fiery coda.

NCO Concert