WeGA, Rezeptionsdokumente, Digitale Edition
author: Anonymus
source date: 1. Juli 1826
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

CARL MARIA VON WEBER.

Von Weber, the distinguished composer of “Der Freischütz,” “Euryanthe,” “Oberon,” and other musical works of the first order, died, on Monday morning, the 5th ult. at the house of Sir George Smart, in Great Portland-street, where he resided on his arrival from the Continent. The event may be termed sudden, since no immediate danger was apprehended on Sunday night by his medical attendants; but it was foreseen that his decease could not be far distant, and all hope of his return to his country had long been abandoned on the part of his friends. His complaint was a pulmonary affection of long standing. His age was only 39, and thus M. Von Weber, who undoubtedly was one of the greatest musicians that has existed since Mozart, has, like him, been taken from that profession to which he was an ornament before he could be said, in point of age, to have attained the full maturity of his genius. The symptoms of his disorder had not assumed a form in any material degree alarming until the preceding Friday, when M. Von Weber was compelled to keep his room; but his spirits and his appetite were good, and he entertained no sense whatever of his approaching danger. The only change remarked in him, was an increasing anxiety to return to his own country. His friends, of course, studied to divert him from an idea they foresaw could never be realized, but all direct opposition only tended to create in him great uneasiness, and his mind grew cheerful in proportion as he conceived the various obstacles that presented themselves were capable of being surmounted. A friend and countryman who paid him constant attention, supped with him, and left him, at 11 o’clock on the night before his death, apparently cheerful, and in no immediate danger. He was found in a lifeless state at seven o’clock the next morning; and though medical aid was promptly resorted to, it was too late, life being quite extinct. Von Weber gave a concert so recently as the 26th of May, at the Argyll rooms, at which he presided, and gratified the audience by several new compositions of extraordinary merit. One of the most remarkable among them was a song from “Lalla Rookh,” composed expressly for Miss Stephens, and which was accompanied by Von Weber himself on the pianoforte. The opera of “Der Freischütz,” with all the original music, was to have been performed on the Monday evening at Covent-garden Theatre, for the benefit, and under the superintendence of the composer; but his increasing indisposition, which prevented his attendance, caused the postponement of the performance. Carl Maria Von Weber was born, according to some accounts, in 1787, according to others, in 1786, in a small town in Holstein. His early musical education was conducted by Heuschkel, of Hildburghausen, whither he went when nine or ten years old. He subsequently took lessons at Salzburgh, from the brother of the celebrated Haydn. His earliest performances were published about the year 1798. There was, it will be seen, if not such uncommon precocity in his genius, as in that of Mozart, yet sufficient to give ample promise of his more matured productions. His opera of “The Girl in the Wood,” composed when he was only fourteen years of age, was performed to applauding audiences in Vienna, Prague, and St. Petersburgh. The opera, with considerable improvements, suggested by his then sverer taste, was afterwards published under the titel of “Silvana.” He had an appointment for some time at Breslau, which he was compelled to leave in 1806, in consequence of the breaking out of the great Prussian war. After that he was for some time in the service of Prince Eugene, of Wirtemberg. His opera of “Abu Hassan” was composed at Darmstadt in 1810. In 1813 he was appointed Director of the opera at Prague, whence he was called to Dresden in 1816, where he occupied the post of Maestro di Capella to the King of Saxony, in whose court he was held in the greatest estimation. His celebrated “Freischütz” was produced at Berlin in 1822. The publication of this opera at once elevated Von Weber to the rank of one of the first composers in Germany, and, with the exception, perhaps, of the “Zauberflöte,” no performance ever became so instantaneously popular, or promises to be so permanently so. This opera first led to the idea of an invitation to Von Weber to visit England, and to compose an opera for the English stage. The health of Weber had evidently suffered much before he visited England. Every one remarked, at his very first appearance. At the concert which he gave, not long before his death, he seemed to be in the last state of exhaustion. He was buried in the Catholic Chapel in Moorfields.