Carl Maria von Weber - Piano Concerto No. 2 in E flat major, Op.32, Roland Keller (piano), Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Siegfried Köhler (conductor)
Initial recording - 1979
1.Allegro Moderato – 0:00
2.Adagio – 08:26
3.Rondo. Presto – 13:16
Carl Maria von Weber (18 or 19 November 1786 – 5 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas, he was a crucial figure in the development of Romantische Oper (Romantic opera).
Throughout his youth, his father, Franz Anton, 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 survived complete.
His mature operas – Silvana (1810), Abu Hassan (1811), Der Freischütz (1821), Die drei Pintos (1820–21), Euryanthe (1823), Oberon (1826) – were a major influence on subsequent German composers.
“In a letter dated 1822 Carl Maria von Weber wrote: 'The enormous acclaim which has been granted to my Freischütz is a very dangerous enemy for all my operas to come'. With hindsight it must be acknowledged that the success of Der Freischütz eclipsed not only the later operas, but in reality all of Weber's other works. Granted, this romantic opera must be considered a focal point in the whole of Weber's works, but it is more than Der Freischütz which is important in the approximately 300 compositions in all forms which he produced. The Piano Concertos No. 1 (C major, Op. 11, J. 98, composed in 1810) and No. 2 (E flat major, Op. 32, J.155, composed in 1811) and the Konzertstuck Op. 79 (J. 282) of 1821 form just one aspect of his enormously wide-ranging compositions for piano.
Weber's solo concertos were composed in the early stages of the rise of the virtuoso as such. Concert life in general was moving from aristocratic circles into the realm of the general public, and accordingly these concertos reflect the spirit of the times in their effective virtuoso brilliance. It is true that Weber, himself a piano virtuoso, recognized the inherent danger which later was to manifest itself with so much glittering superficiality. In his novel Tonkiinstlers Leben he stated: 'These dammed pianist's fingers, which eventually gain a sort of independence and obstinate consciousness while being trained and mastered, are unwitting tyrants and dictators of the creative powers.' Yet to Carl Maria von Weber a compromise between technical brilliance and artistic expression seems to be possible, for he writes in 1810: '... It is certain that no painting would ever be painted, no drama written, no music composed, if there were not the inner urge within the artist to affect others and to compel him to do so'. It can be assumed that by using the term 'affect' he meant more than just cause amazement by impressive virtuosity.
In Weber's Piano Concertos we witness the beginning of the dissolution of the classic principle of the sonata form, which was a phenomenon of the early 19th century. It is true that Weber roughly retains the structure of the hitherto customary 'concerto', yet he abandons the strictness of the working-out of motifs within this framework. Instead he has a sequence of rhapsodic and free successions of ideas — he replaces it by a rhythmic precision, with melodic vitality (here we find the composer of operas), and brilliant virtuosity. They now become the essential elements.” (from note by Bernward Lamerz and other sources)

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