Experience with Weber

[jamie0168]

You can either post this on this topic, or send your answers to me privately. This is for a research project, so please be honest and thorough.

1. Have you played any Weber? If so, which pieces? And at what age did you play these?

2. Are you familiar with the Weber piano concerti? Have you played them?

3. When you first think of Weber, what sort of repertoire pops into your mind?

4. What are the difficulties associated with Weber's piano music?

5. Do you enjoy Weber's music? (either listening or playing)

6. Do you think Weber is underplayed in the piano world? If so, then why?


If there's anything else you would like to add to this topic, feel free to share.

Thanks for your help!

[thalbergmad]

1. Have you played any Weber? If so, which pieces? And at what age did you play these?

Yes, Sonata No.1 Op.24, Variations on Naga's Air and both concertos. Played through but knowhere near mastered. Also a few transcriptions. Cannot remember playing Weber much before i was 40.

2. Are you familiar with the Weber piano concerti? Have you played them?

As above, but not to any degree of proficiency

3. When you first think of Weber, what sort of repertoire pops into your mind?

Early romantic a la herz, but better (just)

4. What are the difficulties associated with Weber's piano music?

Weber had huge hands and sometimes wrote accordingly, so that difficulties will arise for those that struggle to make an easy 10th. Playing his music gives me more forearm cramp than many other composers, but this is my fault and not his. One must strive for complete clarity and crystal clear passages. Much care must be given to pedalling. More difficult than it looks and requires a high level of mechanical proficiency.

5. Do you enjoy Weber's music? (either listening or playing)

I prefer listening to playing. I do not keep my fingers in good enough order.

6. Do you think Weber is underplayed in the piano world? If so, then why?

I feel the concertos are of sufficient quality to be part of the regular reptoire.

Thal

[weissenberg2]

1. I have not played any yet, but I plan on playing the works for piano & orchestra, the 3rd sonata and the rondo brilliante "Invitation to the Dance"

2. I am familiar with them, but have not yet played them.

3. Late Classical and early Romantic composers like Hummel & Schubert

4. The tenths and large stretches.

5. Yes

6. I do think his music is underplayed, because it is quite good in all respects and almost no one performs his music.

[thalbergmad]

3. Late Classical and early Romantic composers like Hummel & Schubert

Schubert does not come to my mind when I listen to Weber.

Thal

[weissenberg2]

Not the music, more of the time period and I feel they both have some influence from Beethoven.

[jamie0168]

Please, I need as many complete surveys as possible. Keep 'em coming!

[vviola]

1. Never, but I studied one of his sonatas. No. 3 I think. I didn't like it.
2. No.
3. Early romantic, or as I like to call it: "post-Beethoven".
4. What thalbergmad said.
5. On rare occasions, yes.
6. No.

[slow_concert_pianist]

I have no experience of Weber, listened to his piano works very long ago. I have never heard a concerto. Does he have any footage here?

From vague memory he is an early romantic composer whose music is reflective and rather difficult to listen to for me.

[stevebob]

1. Have you played any Weber? If so, which pieces? And at what age did you play these?

I haven't learned anything, though I became enamored of the Minuet from the Sonata Op. 24 some years back and dabbled with it some.

2. Are you familiar with the Weber piano concerti? Have you played them?

I have a CD of the two piano concertos and the Konzertstück, but haven't played any of them at the piano—just the CD.   

3. When you first think of Weber, what sort of repertoire pops into your mind?

I think of late Classical, on the cusp of incipient Romanticism.  I find similarities in the music of Hummel most of all, but also Schubert, Mendelssohn and Chopin.

4. What are the difficulties associated with Weber's piano music?

I lack sufficient hands-on experience, or even significant enough exposure to the scores, to comment.

5. Do you enjoy Weber's music? (either listening or playing)

Yes!

6. Do you think Weber is underplayed in the piano world? If so, then why?

Yes, certainly relative to the popularity Weber's music apparently enjoyed in an earlier era.  But fading popularity has been the fate of many other composers, too; apparently there's too much competition for the attention of the public eye for every highly esteemed reputation to endure indefinitely.

The evolving (and greatly diminished) role of music-making as household entertainment and personal avocation is probably the biggest reason that so much once-admired music has fallen out of favor.  An examination of the catalogue of a major music publisher from a century ago in comparison with a current one immediately reveals the extent of this unfortunate happenstance.