Carl Maria von Weber: Grand Potpourri for cello and orchestra, Op.20, J.64,

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber

[(1821), by Caroline Bardua]

(18 or 19 November 1786 – 5 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist, and critic, and was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school(era). Best known for his operas, he was a crucial figure in the development of German Romantische Oper (German Romantic opera).[1]

Throughout his youth, his father, Franz Anton [de], relentlessly moved the family between Hamburg, Salzburg, Freiberg, Augsburg and Vienna. Consequently he studied with many teachers – his father, Johann Peter Heuschkel, Michael Haydn, Giovanni Valesi, Johann Nepomuk Kalcher and Georg Joseph Vogler – under whose supervision he composed four operas, none of which survive complete.[1] He had a modest output of non-operatic music, which includes two symphonies; a bassoon concerto; piano pieces such as Konzertstück in F minor and Invitation to the Dance; and many pieces that featured the clarinet, usually written for the virtuoso clarinetist Heinrich Baermann. His mature operas—Silvana (1810), Abu Hassan (1811), Der Freischütz (1821), Die drei Pintos (comp. 1820–21), Euryanthe (1823), Oberon (1826)—had a major impact on subsequent German composers including Marschner, Meyerbeer, and Wagner; his compositions for piano influenced those of Chopin and Liszt. His best known work, Der Freischütz, remains among the most significant German operas.

 

Grand Potpourri for cello and orchestra, Op.20, J.64,

Thomas Blees (cello), Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Carl-August Bünte (conductor) Movements (without breaks):

01. - Maestoso. — 00:00 02. — Andante. — 03:27 03. — Adagio. — 10:29 04. — Allegro. –15:21

 

The Grand potpourri for cello and orchestra is one of Weber's display pieces in the grand manner. It is in the bright key of D major. The orchestral opening is played maestoso, the solo cellist shortly entering in the theatrical style, still limbering up, Andante, with handfuls of divided notes and ardently couched phrases scattered liberally over two and a half registers. (Bottesini, Rossini and Paganini all revelled in this same shameless exhibitionism). The cello soon settles into the mode of F major for a series of romantic themes and a call to action. A recitative and modulation to G minor - then B flat major - allows the soloist to continue to emote to his heart's content, but one cannot help thinking that by this point the music really cries out for a change. And finally it comes: two dramatic announcements from the orchestra, and away we go in a skipping D major dance for solo cello to a simple 4/4 accompaniment. An A major counter theme adds variety with solo oboes, then a quick modulation to D minor leads to F, A flat, B flat, and back to D. Weber amuses himself with some lightning embellishments on the main theme, before the operatic bridge passage and a final coruscating coda as the cellist fearlessly scales what are (for him) dizzy heights indeed.“ (Bill & Gill Newman, Album Notes)

 

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