Carl Maria Friedrich August (Ernst) von Weber (German Carl Maria von Weber; November 18 or 19, 1786, Eutin - June 5, 1826, London) - German composer, conductor, pianist, music writer, founder of German romantic opera. Baron Weber was born into the family of a musician and theatrical entrepreneur, always immersed in various projects. Childhood and youth were spent wandering around the cities of Germany together with a small theater troupe of his father, which is why it cannot be said that he went through a systematic and strict music school in his youth. Almost the first piano teacher with whom Weber studied for a more or less long time was Johann Peter Heuschkel, then, according to theory, Michael Haydn, and G. Vogler also took lessons. 1798 - Weber's first works appeared - small fugues. Weber was then a student of the organist Kalcher in Munich. More thoroughly the theory of composition Weber subsequently went through with Abbot Vogler, having fellow students Meyerbeer and Gottfried Weber; at the same time he studied piano with Franz Lauska. Weber's first stage experience was the opera Die Macht der Liebe und des Weins. Although he wrote a lot in his early youth, his first success came with his opera Das Waldmädchen (1800). The 14-year-old composer's opera was given on many stages in Europe and even in St. Petersburg. Subsequently, Weber reworked this opera, which, under the name "Sylvanas", held on for a long time on many German opera stages.
Having written the opera "Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn" (1802), symphonies, piano sonatas, the cantata "Der erste Ton", the opera "Abu Hassan" (1811), he conducted the orchestra in different cities and gave concerts.
1804 - worked as a conductor of opera houses (Breslavl, Bad Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin).
1805 - wrote the opera "Ryubetsal" based on the fairy tale by I. Museus.
1810 - opera "Sylvanas".
1811 - opera "Abu-Ghassan".
1813 - headed the opera house in Prague.
1814 - becomes popular after composing martial songs on the verses of Theodor Kerner: "Lützows wilde Jagd", "Schwertlied" and the cantata "Kampf und Sieg" ("Battle and Victory") (1815) on the text of Wollbruck on the occasion of the Battle of Waterloo. The jubilee overture, the masses in es and g, and the cantatas then written in Dresden were much less successful.
1817 - headed and until the end of his life directed the German musical theater in Dresden.
1819 - back in 1810, Weber drew attention to the plot of "Freischütz" ("Free shooter"); but it was not until this year that he began to write an opera based on this story, reworked by Johann Friedrich Kind. Freischütz, staged in 1821 in Berlin under the direction of the author, caused a positive sensation, and Weber's fame reached its zenith. “Our shooter hit right on target,” Weber wrote to librettist Kind. Beethoven, surprised by Weber's work, said that he did not expect this from such a gentle person and that Weber should write one opera after another.
Prior to Freischütz, Wolff's Preciosa was staged the same year, with music by Weber.
In 1821 he gave lessons in the theory of composition to Julius Benedict, to whom Queen Victoria, for his talent, would later grant a title of nobility.
1822 - at the suggestion of the Vienna Opera, the composer wrote "Evryant" (at 18 months). But the success of the opera was no longer as brilliant as Freishütz.
Weber's last work was the opera Oberon, which he traveled to London to present and died at the home of the conductor George Smart shortly after the premiere.
Weber is justly considered a purely German composer who deeply understood the nature of national music and brought the German melody to a high artistic perfection. Throughout his entire career he remained true to the national trend, and in his operas lies the foundation on which Wagner built Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. In particular, in "Evryant" the listener is seized by exactly the musical atmosphere that he feels in the works of Wagner of the middle period. Weber is a brilliant representative of the romantic opera trend, which was in such force in the twenties of the 19th century and which later found a follower in Wagner.
Weber's talent is in full swing in his last three operas: "Magic Arrow", "Euryant" and "Oberon". It is extremely varied. Dramatic moments, love, subtle features of musical expression, a fantastic element - everything was available to the broad talent of the composer. The most diverse images are outlined by this musical poet with great sensitivity, rare expression, with great melody. A patriot at heart, he not only developed folk melodies, but also created his own in a purely folk spirit. Occasionally, his vocal melody at a fast pace suffers from some instrumentality: it seems to be written not for the voice, but for an instrument to which technical difficulties are more accessible. As a symphonist, Weber mastered the orchestral palette to perfection. His orchestral painting is full of imagination and is distinguished by a peculiar coloring. Weber is predominantly an opera composer; the symphonic works he wrote for the concert stage are far inferior to his operatic overtures. In the field of song and instrumental chamber music, namely piano compositions, this composer left wonderful examples.
Weber also owns the unfinished opera Three Pintos (1821, completed by G. Mahler in 1888).
1861 - Weber erected a monument in Dresden, the work of Ernst Rietschel.
Max Weber, his son wrote a biography of his famous father.
The famous German composer, conductor, pianist and public figure, who contributed to raising the level of musical life in Germany and the growth of the authority and importance of national art, Carl Maria von Weber was born on December 18, 1786 in the Holstein town of Eitin into the family of a provincial entrepreneur who loves music and theater.
Being by origin a native of craft circles, the composer's father liked to flaunt in front of the public a non-existent title of nobility, a family coat of arms and the prefix "von" to the name Weber.
Karl Maria's mother, who came from a family of wood carvers, inherited excellent vocal abilities from her parents, for some time she even worked in the theater as a professional singer.
Together with itinerant artists, the Weber family moved from place to place, so even in early childhood, Karl Maria got used to the theater environment and got acquainted with the manners of nomadic troupes. The result of such a life was the necessary knowledge of the theater and the laws of the stage for an opera composer, as well as rich musical experience.
Little Karl Maria had two hobbies - music and painting. The boy painted in oils, painted miniatures, he also succeeded in engraving compositions, in addition, he knew how to play some musical instruments, including the piano.
In 1798, the twelve-year-old Weber was lucky enough to become in Salzburg a student of Mikhail Haydn, the younger brother of the famous Joseph Haydn. The lessons in theory and composition ended with the writing of six fughettas under the guidance of a teacher, which, thanks to the efforts of his father, were published in the Universal Musical Gazette.
The departure of the Weber family from Salzburg caused a change in music teachers. The unsystematic and variegated musical education was compensated by the versatile talent of the young Karl Maria. By the age of 14, he had written quite a few works, including several sonatas and variations for piano, a number of chamber compositions, a mass and the opera The Power of Love and Hate, which became Weber's first such work.
Nevertheless, in those years, a talented young man gained great fame as a performer and writer of popular songs. Moving from one city to another, he performed his own and other people's works to the accompaniment of a piano or guitar. Like his mother, Carl Maria Weber had a unique voice, greatly weakened by acid poisoning.
Neither the difficult financial situation, nor constant moving could seriously affect the creative productivity of the gifted composer. Written in 1800, the opera "The Forest Girl" and the singsch-pil "Peter Schmol and his neighbors" received favorable reviews from Weber's former teacher, Mikhail Haydn. This was followed by numerous waltzes, ecossaises, four-hand pieces for piano and songs.
Already in the early, immature operatic works of Weber, a certain creative line can be traced - an appeal to the national-democratic genre of theatrical art (all operas are written in the form of a singspiel - an everyday performance in which musical episodes and conversational dialogues coexist) and a gravitation towards fantasy.
Among the numerous teachers of Weber, the collector of folk melodies Abbe Vogler, the most popular scientific theorist and composer of his time, deserves special attention. Throughout 1803, under the guidance of Vogler, the young man studied the work of outstanding composers, made a detailed analysis of their works and gained experience to write his great works. In addition, the Vogler school contributed to the growth of Weber's interest in folk art.
In 1804, the young composer moved to Breslau, where he got a job as a bandmaster and began updating the operatic repertoire of the local theater. His active work in this direction met with resistance from singers and orchestra members, and Weber resigned.
However, the difficult financial situation forced him to agree to any proposals: for several years he was Kapellmeister in Karlsruhe, then - the personal secretary of the Duke of Württemberg in Stuttgart. But Weber could not say goodbye to music: he continued to compose instrumental works, experimented in the genre of opera (Sylvanas).
In 1810, a young man was arrested on suspicion of participating in court swindles and expelled from Stuttgart. Weber again became an itinerant musician, traveling with concerts in numerous German and Swiss cities.
It was this talented composer who initiated the creation of the Harmonic Society in Darmstadt, designed to support and promote the works of its members through propaganda and criticism in the press. The charter of the society was drawn up, and the creation of a “musical topography of Germany” was also planned, allowing artists to correctly navigate in a particular city.
During this period, Weber's passion for folk music intensified. In his free time, the composer went to the surrounding villages to "collect melodies". Sometimes, under the impression of what he heard, he immediately composed songs and performed them to the accompaniment of a guitar, causing exclamations of approval from the audience.
In the same period of creative activity, the literary talent of the composer was developed. Numerous articles, reviews and letters characterized Weber as an intelligent, thoughtful person, an opponent of routine, standing at the forefront.
Being a champion of national music, Weber also paid tribute to foreign art. He especially appreciated the work of such French composers of the revolutionary period as Cherubini, Megul, Gretry, and others. Special articles and essays were devoted to them, and their works were performed. Of particular interest in the literary heritage of Carl Maria von Weber is the autobiographical novel "The Life of a Musician", which tells about the difficult fate of a vagabond composer.
The composer did not forget about music either. His works of 1810 - 1812 are distinguished by greater independence and skill. An important step on the way to creative maturity was the comic opera Abu Ghassan, in which the images of the most significant works of the master are traced.
Weber spent the period from 1813 to 1816 in Prague as the head of the opera house, the following years he worked in Dresden, and everywhere his reform plans met with stubborn resistance among theater bureaucrats.
The growth of patriotic sentiment in Germany in the early 1820s proved to be a saving grace for the work of Carl Maria von Weber. Writing music for the romantic-patriotic poems of Theodor Kerner, who participated in the war of liberation in 1813 against Napoleon, brought the composer the laurels of a national artist.
Another patriotic work by Weber was the cantata "Battle and Victory", written and performed in 1815 in Prague. It was accompanied by a summary of the content, contributing to a better understanding of the work by the public. In the future, similar explanations were compiled for larger works.
The Prague period marked the beginning of the creative maturity of the talented German composer. Particularly noteworthy are the works of piano music written by him at that time, in which new elements of musical speech and texture of style were introduced.
Weber's move to Dresden in 1817 marked the beginning of a settled family life (by that time the composer had already married his beloved woman, the former Prague opera singer Caroline Brandt). The active work of the advanced composer found few like-minded people among the influential people of the state here.
In those years, traditional Italian opera was preferred in the Saxon capital. Created at the beginning of the 19th century, the German national opera was deprived of the support of the royal court and aristocratic patrons.
Weber had to do a lot to assert the priority of national art over Italian. He managed to gather a good team, achieve its artistic coherence and stage Mozart's opera Fidelio, as well as works by French composers Megul (Joseph in Egypt), Cherubini (Lodoisk) and others.
The Dresden period was the pinnacle of the creative activity of Karl Maria Weber and the final decade of his life. During this time, the best piano and opera works were written: numerous sonatas for piano, "Invitation to the Dance", "Concerto-stuff" for piano and orchestra, as well as the operas "Freischütz", "Magic Shooter", "Eurianta" and "Oberon ”, indicating the path and directions for the further development of the operatic art in Germany.
The production of "The Magic Shooter" brought Weber worldwide fame and fame. The idea to write an opera based on the plot of the folk tale about the "black hunter" originated with the composer as early as 1810, but the vigorous social activity prevented the implementation of this plan. Only in Dresden did Weber again turn to the somewhat fabulous plot of The Magic Shooter; at his request, the poet F. Kind wrote the libretto of the opera.
Events unfold in the Czech region of Bohemia. The main characters of the work are the hunter Max, the daughter of the count's forester Agatha, the reveler and gambler Caspar, Agatha's father, Kuno, and Prince Ottokar.
The first act begins with joyful greetings from the winner of the shooting competition, Kilian, and the sad wailing of a young hunter who has been defeated in the preliminary tournament. Such a fate in the final of the competition violates all of Max's plans: according to the old hunting custom, his marriage to the beautiful Agatha will become impossible. The girl's father and several hunters console the unfortunate man.
Soon the fun stops, everyone leaves, and Max is left alone. His solitude is violated by the reveler Kaspar, who sold his soul to the devil. Pretending to be a friend, he promises to help the young hunter and informs him about magic bullets that should be cast at night in the Wolf Valley - a cursed place frequented by evil spirits.
Max doubts, however, deftly playing on the young man's feelings for Agatha, Kaspar persuades him to go to the valley. Max retires from the stage, and the clever gambler triumphs in advance of his deliverance from the approaching hour of reckoning.
The actions of the second act take place in the forester's house and in the gloomy Wolf Valley. Agatha is sad in her room, even the cheerful chatter of her carefree flirtatious friend Ankhen cannot distract her from her sad thoughts.
Agatha is waiting for Max. Overwhelmed with gloomy forebodings, she goes to the balcony and calls on heaven to dispel her worries. Max enters, trying not to frighten his beloved, and tells her about the reason for his sadness. Agatha and Ankhen persuade him not to go to a terrible place, but Max, who made a promise to Kaspar, leaves.
At the end of the second act, a gloomy valley opens up to the eyes of the audience, the silence of which is interrupted by the ominous cries of invisible spirits. At midnight, the black hunter Samyel, the herald of death, appears before Kaspar, who is preparing for witchcraft spells. Kaspar's soul must go to hell, but he asks for a reprieve, sacrificing Max to the devil instead of himself, who tomorrow will kill Agatha with a magic bullet. Samiel agrees to this sacrifice and disappears with a clap of thunder.
Soon, Max descends from the top of the cliff into the valley. The forces of good are trying to save him by sending images of his mother and Agatha, but too late - Max sells his soul to the devil. The finale of the second act is the scene of casting magic bullets.
The third and final act of the opera is dedicated to the last day of the competition, which should end with the wedding of Max and Agatha. The girl who saw a prophetic dream at night is sad again. Ankhen's efforts to cheer up her friend are in vain, her anxiety for her beloved does not go away. The girls who appear soon present flowers to Agatha. She opens the box and finds a funeral dress instead of a wedding wreath.
There is a change of scenery, which marks the finale of the third act and the entire opera. In front of Prince Ottokar, his courtiers and the forester Kuno, hunters demonstrate their skills, among them Max. The young man must make the last shot, the target is a dove flying from bush to bush. Max takes aim, and at that moment Agatha appears behind the bushes. The magical force deflects the muzzle of the gun to the side, and the bullet hits Kaspar, who is hiding in a tree. Mortally wounded, he falls to the ground, his soul sent to hell, accompanied by Samiel.
Prince Ottokar demands an explanation for what happened. Max tells about the events of the previous night, the enraged prince sentences him to exile, the young hunter must forever forget about marriage with Agatha. The intercession of those present cannot mitigate the punishment.
Only the appearance of a bearer of wisdom and justice changes the situation. The hermit pronounces his verdict: to delay the wedding of Max and Agatha for a year. Such a generous decision becomes the cause of universal joy and rejoicing, all those gathered praise God and his mercy.
The successful conclusion of the opera corresponds to the moral idea, presented in the form of a struggle between good and evil and the victory of good forces. A certain amount of abstractness and idealization of real life can be traced here, at the same time, there are moments in the work that meet the requirements of progressive art: showing folk life and the originality of its way of life, appealing to the characters of the peasant-burgher environment. Fantasy, due to adherence to popular beliefs and traditions, is devoid of any mysticism; in addition, the poetic image of nature brings a fresh stream to the composition.
The dramatic line in The Magic Arrow develops sequentially: Act I is the plot of the drama, the desire of evil forces to take possession of a wavering soul; II act - the struggle of light and darkness; Act III is the climax, culminating in the triumph of virtue.
The dramatic action here unfolds on the musical material, coming in large layers. To reveal the ideological meaning of the work and combine it with the help of musical and thematic connections, Weber uses the principle of leitmotif: a brief leitmotif, constantly accompanying the character, concretizes one or another image (for example, the image of Samiel, personifying dark, mysterious forces).
A new, purely romantic means of expression is the general mood for the entire opera, subordinated to the "sound of the forest", with which all the events are connected.
The life of nature in "The Magic Shooter" has two sides: one of them, associated with the idyllic depiction of the patriarchal life of hunters, is revealed in folk songs and melodies, as well as in the sound of horns; the second side, connected with the ideas of the demonic, dark forces of the forest, manifests itself in a unique combination of orchestral timbres and an alarming syncopated rhythm.
The overture to "The Magic Shooter", written in sonata form, reveals the ideological concept of the whole work, its content and the course of events. Here, in contrast, the main themes of the opera appear, which at the same time are the musical characteristics of the main characters, which are developed in portrait arias.
The strongest source of romantic expressiveness in The Magic Shooter is rightfully considered the orchestra. Weber was able to identify and use certain features and expressive properties of individual instruments. In some scenes, the orchestra plays an independent role and is the main means of musical development of the opera (the scene in the Wolf Valley, etc.).
The success of The Magic Shooter was stunning: the opera was staged in many cities, arias from this work were sung on city streets. Thus, Weber was rewarded a hundredfold for all the humiliations and trials that fell to his lot in Dresden.
In 1822, F. Barbaia, an entrepreneur at the Vienna Court Opera House, suggested that Weber compose a grand opera. A few months later, Eurytana, written in the genre of a knightly romantic opera, was sent to the Austrian capital.
The legendary plot with some mystical mystery, the desire for heroics and special attention to the psychological characteristics of the characters, the predominance of feelings and reflections on the development of the action - these features, outlined by the composer in this work, later become characteristic features of the German romantic opera.
In the autumn of 1823, Eurytana premiered in Vienna, attended by Weber himself. Having caused a storm of delight among the adherents of the national art, the opera did not receive such wide recognition as The Magic Shooter.
This circumstance had a rather depressing effect on the composer, in addition, a severe lung disease inherited from his mother made itself felt. Increasing seizures caused long breaks in Weber's work. So, between the writing of "Evrytana" and the start of work on "Oberon" about 18 months passed.
The last opera was written by Weber at the request of Covent Garden, one of the largest opera houses in London. Realizing the proximity of death, the composer sought to complete his last work as soon as possible so that the family would not be left without a livelihood after his death. The same reason forced him to go to London to direct the production of the fairy tale opera Oberon.
In this work, which consists of several separate paintings, fantastic events and real life are intertwined with great artistic freedom, everyday German music coexists with "Eastern exoticism".
When writing Oberon, the composer did not set himself any special dramatic tasks, he wanted to write a cheerful opera extravaganza filled with a relaxed fresh melody. The brilliance and lightness of the orchestral color used in writing this work had a significant impact on the improvement of romantic orchestral writing and left a special imprint on the scores of such romantic composers as Berlioz, Mendelssohn and others.
The musical merits of Weber's last operas found their most striking expression in the overtures, which were also recognized as independent program symphonic works. At the same time, certain shortcomings in the libretto and dramaturgy limited the number of productions of Evritana and Oberon on the stages of opera houses.
Hard work in London, coupled with frequent overloads, finally undermined the health of the famous composer, July 5, 1826 was the last day of his life: Carl Maria von Weber died of consumption before reaching the age of forty.
In 1841, on the initiative of leading public figures in Germany, the question of transferring the ashes of a talented composer to his homeland was raised, and three years later his remains were returned to Dresden.
In February 1815, Count Karl von Brühl, director of the Berlin Royal Theatre, introducing Karl Maria von Weber to the Prussian Chancellor Karl August Duke Hardenburg as conductor of the Berlin Opera, gave him the following recommendation: this man stands out not only as a brilliant "passionate composer, he possesses in full of extensive knowledge in the field of art, poetry and literature, and this differs from most musicians. There is no better way to characterize Weber's many gifts.
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was born on November 18, 1786 in Eutin. He was the ninth child of ten children from his father's two marriages. Father - Franz Anton von Weber, without a doubt, had musical abilities. He started his career as a lieutenant, but even on the battlefield he carried a violin with him.
From an early age, Karl got used to a constant nomadic life. From childhood, he grew up as a sickly, weak boy. He started walking only at the age of four. Due to physical handicaps, he was more thoughtful and withdrawn than his peers. He learned, in his words, "to live in his own world, in a world of fantasy, and find in it for himself occupation and happiness."
His father had long cherished the dream of making at least one of his children an outstanding musician. Mozart's example haunted him. Thus, from an early age, Karl began to study music with his father and with his half-brother Fridolin. The irony of fate, but one day Fridolin exclaimed in despair: “Karl, it seems you can become anyone, but you will never become a musician.”
Karl Maria was given as an apprentice to the young bandmaster and composer Johann Peter Geyshkel. Since then, learning has progressed rapidly. A year later, the family went to Salzburg, and Karl became a student of Michael Haydn. Then he composed his first work, which was published by his father, and received a positive review in one of the newspapers.
In 1798 his mother died. Adelaide, the father's sister, took care of Carla. From Austria, the Webers moved to Munich. Here the young man began to take singing lessons from Johann Evangelist Wallishausets and study composition from the local organist Johann Nepomuk Kalcher.
It was also here in Munich that Karl wrote his first comic opera, The Power of Love and Wine. Unfortunately, it was subsequently lost.
However, the restless nature of the father did not allow the Weber family to stay in one place for a long time. In 1799 they arrive in the Saxon city of Freiburg. A year later, in November, the premiere of the first youth opera "The Forest Girl" took place here. In November 1801, father and son arrived in Salzburg. Karl again began to study with Michael Haydn. Soon Weber wrote the third opera - "Peter Schmol and his neighbors." However, the premiere of the opera in Augsburg did not take place, and Karl Maria went on a concert tour with his father. Even then, thanks to his thin and long fingers, the young man achieved such a technique that at that time was available to units.
An attempt to send Karl to study with Joseph Haydn nevertheless failed due to the refusal of the maestro. Therefore, the young man continued his studies with Georg Joseph Vogler. Abbot Vogler maintained in the young talent an interest in folk song and music, especially in the oriental motifs popular at that time, which was later reflected in Weber's work Abu Hasan.
More important, however, was the training in conducting. This allowed Karl in 1804 to lead the orchestra in the theater of the city of Breslau. Not yet eighteen years old, the conductor seated the orchestra players in a new way, intervened in the productions, introduced separate rehearsals of the ensemble, as well as general rehearsals, to learn new parts. Weber's reforms were received ambiguously even by the public.
Here, Karl had many novels in the theater, among other things, with the prima donna Ditzel. A beautiful life required more and more funds, and the young man got into debt.
His son's debts prompted his father to look for a source of food, and he began to try his hand at copper engraving. Unfortunately, this has become a source of unhappiness. One evening, chilled, Karl took a sip from a wine bottle, not suspecting that his father kept nitric acid there. He was saved by his friend Wilhelm Berner, who urgently called a doctor. The fatal outcome was avoided, but the young man lost his beautiful voice forever. Opponents took advantage of his absence and quickly eliminated all his reforms. Without money, pursued by creditors, the young pianist went on tour. Here he was lucky. The maid of honor of Brelonde, court lady of the Duchess of Württemberg, facilitated his introduction to Eugene Friedrich von Württemberg-Els. Carl Maria took the place of music director at Karlsruhe Castle, built in the forests of upper Silesia. Now he has plenty of time to write. The twenty-year-old composer wrote a trumpet concertino and two symphonies in the autumn of 1806 and the winter of 1807. But the offensive of the Napoleonic army confused all the cards. Soon Karl was to take the place of the private secretary of Duke Ludwig, one of the three sons of Eugene. From the very beginning, this service turned out to be difficult for Weber. The duke, who is experiencing financial difficulties, has repeatedly made Charles a scapegoat. Three years of wild life, when Charles Maria often participated in the revels of his master, ended quite unexpectedly. In 1810, Karl's father came to Stuttgart and brought with him new and considerable debts. It all ended with the fact that, trying to get out of both his and his father's debts, the composer ended up behind bars, however, only for sixteen days. On February 26, 1810, Karl, along with his father, was expelled from Württemberg, but they took a promise from him to return the debts.
This event was of great importance to Karl. In his diary he writes: "Born again."
In a short time, Weber visited first Mannheim, then Heidelberg, and finally moved to Darmdstadt. Here Karl became interested in writing. His greatest achievement was the novel A Musician's Life, in which he gaily and brilliantly described the spiritual life of a composer while composing music. The book was largely autobiographical.
On September 16, 1810, his opera Sylvanas premiered in Frankfurt. The composer was prevented from enjoying the triumph by Madame Blanchard's sensational balloon flight over Frankfurt, which overshadowed all other events. The title role in the opera was sung by the young singer Caroline Brandt, who later became his wife. Inspired by the success and recognition, Carl Maria started the composition "Abu Gasan" in late autumn. He completed his largest instrumental work of that period in C-Dur, opus 11.
In February 1811, the composer went on a concert tour. On March 14, it ended in Munich. Karl stayed there, he liked the cultural environment of the Bavarian city. Already on April 5, Heinrich Josef Berman performed a hastily composed clarinet concertino especially for him. "The whole orchestra has gone mad and wants concerts from me," Weber wrote. Even King Max Joseph of Bavaria commissioned two clarinet concertos and a concerto.
Unfortunately, the matter did not reach other works, because Weber was occupied with other hobbies, and mainly love ones.
In January 1812, while in the city of Gotha, Karl Maria felt severe chest pains. Since that time, Weber's battle with a deadly disease began.
In April, in Berlin, Weber was overtaken by sad news - his father died at the age of 78. Now he was left all alone. However, his stay in Berlin did him good. Along with studies with male choirs, correction and revision of the opera Silvana, he also wrote clavier music. With the great C-Dur sonata he set foot on new ground. A new way of virtuoso playing was born, which influenced the musical art of the entire 19th century. The same applies to his second clavier concerto.
Going on a new tour at the beginning of the next year, Karl recalled with longing: “Everything seems to me a dream: that I left Berlin and left everything that became dear and close to me.”
But Weber's tour came to an abrupt end as soon as it began. As soon as Karl arrived in Prague, he was taken aback by the offer to head the local theater. After some hesitation, Weber agreed. He had a rare opportunity to realize his musical ideas, since from the director of the theater Liebig he received unlimited powers to compose an orchestra. On the other hand, he had a real chance to get rid of his debts.
Unfortunately, soon Karl became seriously ill, so much so that he did not leave the apartment for a long time. After recovering a little, he plunged into work. His working day lasted from six in the morning until midnight.
But the Prague crisis was not limited to illness and hard work. The composer could not resist attempts to bring together flirtatious theatrical ladies. “It is my misfortune that an eternally young heart is beating in my chest,” he sometimes complained.
After new bouts of illness, Weber leaves for spa treatment and often writes from Bad Liebwerdn to Caroline Brandt, who has become his guardian angel. After numerous quarrels, the lovers finally found mutual agreement.
The liberation of Berlin after the Leipzig defeat of Napoleon unexpectedly aroused patriotic feelings in the composer. He composes music for Lützow's Wild Hunt and the Sword Song from Theodor Kerner's collection of poems Lyre and Sword.
However, he soon fell into a depression, caused not only by new attacks of the disease, but also by serious disagreements with Brandt. Weber is inclined to leave Prague, and only the serious illness of the theater director Liebig delayed him in the Czech Republic.
On November 19, 1816, a great event took place in the life of the composer - he announced his engagement to Caroline Brandt. Inspired, in a short time he wrote two sonatas for piano, a large concert duet for claret and piano, and several songs.
At the end of 1817, Weber takes over as musical director of the German Opera in Dresden. Finally, he settled down and not only began to lead a sedentary lifestyle, but also forever ended his increasingly exhausting love affairs. On November 4, 1817, he married Caroline Brandt.
In Dresden, Weber wrote his best work, the opera Free Gunner. He first mentioned this opera in a letter to his then-fiancee Carolina: "The plot is appropriate, creepy and interesting." However, the year 1818 was already ending, and work on the Free Shooter almost did not begin, which is not surprising, because he had 19 orders from his employer, the king.
Carolina was expecting a baby and was in the last month of pregnancy not quite healthy. After much torment, she gave birth to a girl, and Karl barely had time to fulfill orders. As soon as he finished mass on the day of honoring the royal couple, he received a new order - an opera on the theme of fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights".
In mid-March, Weber fell ill, and a month later his daughter died. Carolina tried to hide the misfortune from her husband.
Soon she herself became seriously ill. Nevertheless, Carolina recovered much faster than her husband, who fell into such a deep depression that he could not write music. Surprisingly, the summer turned out to be productive. In July and August, Weber composed extensively. Only now the work on the "Free Shooter" did not move forward. New, 1820 began again with misfortune - Carolina had a miscarriage. Thanks to friends, the composer managed to overcome the crisis and on February 22 began to complete The Free Gunner. On May 3, Weber was able to proudly announce: “The Hunter's Bride overture is complete, and with it the whole opera. Honor and praise be to God."
The opera premiered on June 18, 1821 in Berlin. A triumphant success awaited her. Beethoven said with admiration about the composer: “In general, a gentle person, I did not expect this from him! Now Weber has to write operas, only operas, one after the other.” Meanwhile, Weber's health was deteriorating. For the first time, his throat bled.
In 1823, the composer completed work on a new opera, Euryanta. He was worried about the low level of the libretto. The premiere of the opera, however, was generally a success. The hall enthusiastically accepted Weber's new work. But the success of the "Free shooter" could not be repeated. The disease progresses rapidly. The composer is haunted by an incessant debilitating cough. In unbearable conditions, he finds the strength to work on the opera Oberon.
On 1 April, Oberon premiered at London's Covent Garden. It was an unparalleled triumph for Carl Maria von Weber. The audience even forced him to take the stage - an event that until then had not happened in the English capital. He died in London on June 5, 1826. The death mask accurately conveys Weber's facial features in some unearthly enlightenment, as if he saw paradise with his last breath.
1. heavenly sign
At the age of twelve, Weber composed his first comic opera, The Power of Love and Wine. The score of the opera was kept in a closet. Soon, in the most incomprehensible way, this cabinet burned down with all its contents. Moreover, except for the closet, nothing in the room was damaged. Weber took this incident as a "sign from above" and decided to give up music forever, devoting himself to lithography.
However, despite the heavenly warning, the passion for music did not go away, and at the age of fourteen Weber wrote a new opera, The Silent Forest Girl. The opera was first staged in 1800. Then it was often staged in Vienna, Prague and even St. Petersburg. After such a very successful start to his musical career, Weber stopped believing in omens and various "signs from above."
2. jealous number 1
Weber's dislike for foreign glory was truly boundless. He was especially implacable towards Rossini: Weber constantly told everyone that Rossini was completely mediocre, that his music was just a fashion that would be forgotten in a couple of years ...
- This upstart Rossini does not even deserve to be talked about! Weber once said.
“Tell him that it would suit me very much,” said Rossinni.
3. motto
The motto of Weber's work was the famous words that the composer asked to be placed in the form of his own autograph on the released engraving with his portrait: "Weber expresses the will of God, Beethoven - the will of Beethoven, and Rossini ... the will of the Viennese"
4. salieri himself
In Breslau, Weber had a tragic accident that almost cost him his life. Weber invited a friend to dinner and sat down to work while waiting for him. Freezing during work, he decided to warm himself with a sip of wine, but in the semi-darkness he took a sip from a wine flask in which Weber's father kept sulfuric acid for engraving work. The composer fell down lifeless. Meanwhile, Weber's friend was late and did not come until nightfall. The composer's window was lit up, but no one answered the knock. A friend pushed open the unlocked door and saw Weber's body lying lifeless on the floor. A broken flask was lying nearby, from which there was a pungent smell. To cries for help, Weber's father ran out of the next room, together they took the composer to the hospital. Weber was brought back to life, but his mouth and throat were terribly burned, and his vocal cords did not work. So Weber lost his beautiful voice. For the rest of his life, he was forced to speak in a whisper.
He once whispered to one of his friends:
- They say that Mozart was ruined by Salieri, but I did without him ...
5. unfortunately, birthday is only once a year...
Weber was very fond of animals. His house resembled a zoo: the hunting dog Ali, the gray cat Maune, the capuchin monkey Schnuf and many birds surrounded the musician's family. The favorite was a large Indian raven - every morning he importantly said to the composer: "Good evening."
One day, his wife Carolina gave him a truly wonderful gift. Especially for Weber's birthday, costumes for animals were sewn, and the next morning a funny procession went to the birthday man's room - congratulations! .. Ali was turned into an elephant with a long trunk and big ears, but silk handkerchiefs replaced him. He was followed by a cat disguised as a donkey, with a pair of slippers instead of bags on her back. A monkey in a magnificent dress hobbled along, a hat with a huge feather coquettishly bouncing on its head ...
Weber jumped with joy like a child, and then something unimaginable began: he forgot about his sores, failures, and even about competing composers ... Animals and happy Weber rushed over chairs and tables, and a serious raven said to everyone an infinite number of times:
- Good evening!
It is a pity that Rossini did not see this ...
6. ugly angel
When The Magic Shooter was staged in Prague, Henrietta Sontag, a very small, charming and extremely timid singer, sang the female lead. She was a girl of angelic beauty, but Weber did not like her too much because of her timidity and insecurity.
- A pretty girl, but still quite thin, - the composer threw up his hands.
7. subtleties of criticism
From time to time, enthusiastic praises appeared in the Parisian newspapers for the greatest of the greatest maestro of all times and peoples - Weber. Moreover, the laudatory articles by an unknown author were written with knowledge of all the subtleties of the composer's music. And it is not surprising, because these praises to Weber were sung by ... Weber himself.
8. maestro and his children
Weber was so in love with himself that, with the consent of his wife, three of his four children were named after the composer's father: Carl Maria, Maria Carolina and Carolina Maria.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, there was no actual German opera in Germany. Up until the 20s. in this genre, throughout Europe, the Italian tradition dominated. The creation and flourishing of the folk-national German romantic opera is associated with the name of Carl Maria von Weber.
The sources for writing his works were ancient legends and folk tales, songs and dances, folklore theater, and various national-democratic literature. Weber's work was strongly influenced by his predecessors, the forerunners of German romanticism: Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann and Ludwig Spohr with their works "Ondine" and "Faust", respectively.
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was born on November 18, 1786 in the Holstein town of Eutin. His father, Franz Anton von Weber, was the head of a traveling theater, and his mother was a singer. The Weber family was related to Mozart. From a young age, Carl studied music with his father. In general, he studied a lot, but unsystematically, with various composers, musicians, music teachers: Johann Geyshkel, Michael Haydn, Georg Joseph Vogler, I. N. Kalcher, I. E. Valesi and others. Weber grew up as a sickly and weak boy, but quickly grasped everything he was taught.
The innate genius and numerous talents justify the exorbitant selfishness of the composer. So, at the age of 18 he already led the orchestra in the theater of the city of Breslau, and at the age of 24 his first successful opera "Sylvanas" was released. During his short life (and Weber died in 1826, just short of his fortieth birthday from a debilitating pulmonary disease), the composer was in the role of musical director of theaters in Dresden and Prague. In parallel, he made numerous concert tours as a pianist, and three operas - "Free Gunner", "Evryant" and "Oberon", became the first examples of the emerging genre of German romanticism.
In addition to his activities as a musician, composer, conductor, Weber wrote critical articles in magazines, reviews of performances, musical works, annotations to his compositions, published an autobiographical novel "The Life of a Musician" and even deeply studied lithography. But the best work of all Weber's work is, without a doubt, the opera "Free Shooter", or as it is also called "Magic Shooter". The opera premiered on June 18, 1821 in Berlin. In its content, this is a romantic interpretation of a folk legend. Here, through music, Weber sings of the beauty of nature and the triumph of noble human feelings, fills the content of the opera with magical contrasts, comparisons of everyday, lyrical and fantastic scenes.
In his personal life, all researchers of the composer's biography note the presence of many novels and theatrical intrigues. But, despite this, for the last 9 years of his life, Weber was married to singer Caroline Brandt. Max Maria Weber, his son, was a civil engineer by profession, and he also wrote a biography of his great father. Carl Maria von Weber entered the history of music as the creator of opera based on German folk artistic traditions. The triumph on the stage of the "Free Shooter", with its fabulously legendary plot and national music in its color, coincided with the general upsurge of the national movement in the country and contributed to it in many ways.
Maria Igumnova
Karl Maria Friedrich August von Weber (born November 18 or 19, 1786, Eitin - died June 5, 1826, London), baron, German composer, conductor, pianist, music writer, founder of German romantic opera.
Weber was born into the family of a musician and theatrical entrepreneur, always immersed in various projects. Childhood and youth were spent wandering around the cities of Germany together with a small theater troupe of his father, which is why it cannot be said that he went through a systematic and strict music school in his youth. Almost the first piano teacher, with whom Weber studied for more or less a long time, was Heshkel, then, according to the theory, Mikhail Haydn, lessons were also taken from G. Vogler.
1798 - Weber's first works appeared - small fugues. Weber was then a student of the organist Kalcher in Munich. More thoroughly, the theory of composition Weber subsequently went through with Abbot Vogler, having fellow students Meyerbeer and Gottfried Weber. Weber's first stage experience was the opera Die Macht der Liebe und des Weins. Although he wrote a lot in his early youth, his first success came with his opera Das Waldmädchen (1800). The 14-year-old composer's opera was given on many stages in Europe and even in St. Petersburg. Subsequently, Weber reworked this opera, which, under the name "Sylvanas", held on for a long time on many German opera stages.
Having written the opera "Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn" (1802), symphonies, piano sonatas, the cantata "Der erste Ton", the opera "Abu Hassan" (1811), he conducted the orchestra in different cities and gave concerts.
1804 - worked as a conductor of opera houses (Breslavl, Bad Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin).
1805 - wrote the opera "Ryubetsal" based on the fairy tale by I. Museus.
1810 - opera "Sylvanas".
1811 - opera "Abu-Ghassan".
1813 - headed the opera house in Prague.
1814 - becomes popular after composing martial songs on the verses of Theodor Kerner: "Lützows wilde Jagd", "Schwertlied" and the cantata "Kampf und Sieg" ("Battle and Victory") (1815) on the text of Wollbruck on the occasion of the Battle of Waterloo. The jubilee overture, the masses in es and g, and the cantatas then written in Dresden were much less successful.
1817 - headed and until the end of his life directed the German musical theater in Dresden.
1819 - back in 1810, Weber drew attention to the plot of "Freischütz" ("Free shooter"); but it was not until this year that he began to write an opera based on this story, reworked by Johann Friedrich Kind. Freischütz, staged in 1821 in Berlin under the direction of the author, caused a positive sensation, and Weber's fame reached its zenith. “Our shooter hit right on target,” Weber wrote to librettist Kind. Beethoven, surprised by Weber's work, said that he did not expect this from such a gentle person and that Weber should write one opera after another.
Prior to Freischütz, Wolff's Preciosa was staged the same year, with music by Weber.
1822 - at the suggestion of the Vienna Opera, the composer wrote "Evryant" (at 18 months). But the success of the opera was no longer as brilliant as Freishütz. Weber's last work was the opera Oberon, after staging which in London in 1826 he died soon after.
Weber is justly considered a purely German composer who deeply understood the nature of national music and brought the German melody to a high artistic perfection. Throughout his entire career he remained true to the national trend, and in his operas lies the foundation on which Wagner built Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. In particular, in "Evryant" the listener is seized by exactly the musical atmosphere that he feels in the works of Wagner of the middle period. Weber is a brilliant representative of the romantic opera trend, which was in such force in the twenties of the 19th century and which later found a follower in Wagner.
Weber's talent is in full swing in his last three operas: "Magic Arrow", "Euryant" and "Oberon". It is extremely varied. Dramatic moments, love, subtle features of musical expression, a fantastic element - everything was available to the broad talent of the composer. The most diverse images are outlined by this musical poet with great sensitivity, rare expression, with great melody. A patriot at heart, he not only developed folk melodies, but also created his own in a purely folk spirit. Occasionally, his vocal melody at a fast pace suffers from some instrumentality: it seems to be written not for the voice, but for an instrument to which technical difficulties are more accessible. As a symphonist, Weber mastered the orchestral palette to perfection. His orchestral painting is full of imagination and is distinguished by a peculiar coloring. Weber is predominantly an opera composer; the symphonic works he wrote for the concert stage are far inferior to his operatic overtures. In the field of song and instrumental chamber music, namely piano compositions, this composer left wonderful examples.
