Events

Weber Serenade champagne concert

June 1, 2015 - June 18, 2015
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The next event in Tokyo Sinfonia's series of Symphonies for Strings champagne concerts, June 17, features music of Carl Maria von Weber.

His is one of those whose names we come across in concert programs from time to time without a very clear idea of who he was, except that he was German, and a composer. Actually, he was a man of many talents — conductor, pianist, guitarist, music critic, and the first significant composer to greatly influence the development of the romantic school of German opera.

Although filled with brilliance and promise, Carl Maria von Weber (1786~1826) had a rather rough life, and not a very long one on earth. At 12, he was in Salzburg to study with Michael Haydn, who taught the boy free of charge. That year some of Weber’s first works, which already included a mass, an opera and a set of piano variations, were published. Within another two years, Weber’s operas began to be performed in Freiburg, Vienna, Prague and Saint Petersburg, and he began to write articles as a music critic.

Recommended at age 19 to the post of Director of the Breslau Opera, Weber set out to enlarge the orchestra, pension off older singers, and expand the repertoire beyond its Italian traditions. His attempts at reform were met with resistance and he left the post after a year in a fit of frustration. He continued to write a quantity of religious music, primarily for the Catholic mass. This earned him the hostility of those working for the reestablishment of traditional chant in liturgy.

He worked constantly to advance the ideal of German opera to replace the Italian opera which long had dominated the European music scene. He was successively director of the Prague Opera, active in Berlin, and from age 29 director of the prestigious Dresden Opera. His final trio of operas, Der Freischutz, Euryanthe, and Oberon, were performed all over Europe. When he travelled to London to conduct the premiere of Oberon, he was already suffering from tuberculosis, and there he died at age 39.

Soon after his appointment to the Breslau Opera, Weber agreed to collaborate with the theatre director, who bought the new young conductor the libretto for an opera based on a German fairy tale. Weber started writing but soon abandoned the project, later revising the overture as a concert overture with the new title, Ruler of the Spirits.

Blessed with enormous hands and a phenomenal technique, Weber was one of the greatest pianists of the time. His last instrumental work, a grand concertant originally written for piano and clarinet, featured a virtuoso accompaniment which few but himself could perform. We offer it in our Sinfonia version for as Grand Concertante for Viola and Strings.

Weber composed his first symphony the year following the premiere of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. Weber adhered to traditional classical forms in his own composition but captured the same romanic spirit. While he himself considered his symphony not to be one of his greatest works, it is nonetheless a remarkable testament to Weber's skill at writing his innate gift of melody.

WEBER SERENADE

June 17, Wednesday, from 19:00 [doors open 18:30] Oji Hall (Ginza)

Ruler of the Spirits Overture Grand Duo Concertante for Viola & Strings - Chiharu Moriyama, Viola solo Symphony for Strings in C Major

Artists & audience reception follows the concert

Tickets: Group ¥5,500 each; Single ¥6,000

Sinfonia direct: tickets@tokyosinfonia.com Peatix online: http://peatix.com/event/85952 Paypal online: https://www.paypal.jp Information: Tel (03)3588-0738

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