Carl Maria von Weber - Events in brief

1786 Carl Maria von Weber was born on 18 November in Eutin, near Liebeck, North Germany.
1787-96 First musical lessons from his brother. His father forms the Weber Troupe. They start touring.
1796 He apprentices to Johann Peter Heuschkel. His mother gets sick in the town of Hildburghausen.
1797 Settles in Salzburg and becomes a student of Michael Haydn.
1798 He publishes his first compositions, the Six Fughettas. His mother dies of tuberculosis.
1804 He becomes Music Director of the Breslau Theatre.
1806-07 He becomes private secretary, first of all, of The Duke Eugene of Karlsruhe and then, of Duke Frederick of Stuttgart.
1810 He is deported from Wurttemberg because of his father.
1810-13 Wanders in Germany. He is composing two clarinet concertos.
1813 Becomes Director of the Prague Opera.
1816 Takes over the Dresden Opera.
1817 Marries Caroline Brandt.
1821 Triumphant premiere of Singer in Berlin.
1823 He visits Vienna and meets Beethoven. His tuberculosis worsens.
1826 Big success in in London for the premiere of Oberon in April. He dies in London on June 5.

One day in 1806, after working in his office, Weber drank a glass he thought had wine and collapsed. The glass contained citric acid. When you recovered several weeks later, his singing skills were gone.

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Johann Strauss II - Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, Op. 214 in A major

Johann Strauss II composed "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka" in 1858 after a successful tour of Russia where he performed in the summer concert season at Pavlovsk, Saint Petersburg. It was first performed in a concert in Vienna on 24 November 1858. The German word "trarch" means gossip, while the word "tritsch" has no meaning. The title is a sample of Johann Strauss II's habit of creating puns. In this case he wanted to imitate sonically the English expression "chit-chat" (drizzle, gossip). The music is lively and Strauss hypothesized that many dancers could wait while chatting until a waltz is played. The composer wrote in his diary that at the time he was conducting a series of concerts in London, the audience asked for this polka 38 times! It is a lively, rhythmic work, in A major, which uses brilliant brass and percussion instruments and is widely decorated with trills and a multitude of musical ornaments. Interpretively it is a demanding work, ...

Robert Schumann - "Träumerei" or "Dreaming" (from the album Kinderszenen or "Scenes from Childhood"), Op. 15, No. 7

'The Woodman's Child' painting of Arthur Hughes, expresses wonderfully the dreamy quality of "Dreaming" from Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood". For Robert Schumann , music was almost always a personal expression of contemplation, feelings and poetic contemplation and that is exactly what makes him one of the most important romantic composers. The piano was Schumann's first love and his compositions for this instrument are among the most resistant through the passage of time. Schumann composed "Scenes from Childhood" album, the best-known of all his pianistic circles, in 1838. It consists of 13 "peculiarly small works", as described by the composer, each with its own title, which expresses a specific childhood memory. These works are all simple and charming, but Dreaming ( Träumerei) is the most popular and best known of all. It is often included in musical collections for solo piano and often the virtuoso performers includ...

Johann Straus II - Vergnügungszug (Pleasure Train), op. 281

Johann Strauss II , celebrated for his waltzes and lively dance music, followed a distinctive creative approach. He consistently sought contemporary and recognizable themes as the inspiration for his compositions, ensuring that his music remained fresh and closely connected to the everyday experiences of his audiences. A characteristic example of this approach can be found in Vergnügungszug (Pleasure Train), a fast polka ( Polka schnell ) composed in 1864. The work was written for one of the famous summer concerts Strauss conducted in Pavlovsk, near St. Petersburg, where he spent several seasons presenting new compositions. For this particular piece, Strauss drew inspiration from a symbol of modern progress at the time: the steam locomotive. The composition vividly captures the energy and motion of a train in full operation. Its driving rhythm evokes the steady chugging of a steam engine, while short, repeated figures suggest the mechanical movement of the wheels along the tracks. Str...

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