Weber: Complete Works for Piano & Orchestra Ronald Brautigam, Die Kölner Akademie & Michael Alexander Willens

• Carl Maria von Weber (1786 - 1826): Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 11, J. 98:
• 1 Weber: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 11, J. 98: I. Allegro 08:12
• 2 Weber: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 11, J. 98: II. Adagio 03:23
• 3 Weber: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 11, J. 98: III. Finale. Presto 07:10
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 32, J. 155:
• 4 Weber: Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 32, J. 155: I. Allegro maestoso 08:55
• 5 Weber: Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 32, J. 155: II. Adagio 04:32
• 6 Weber: Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 32, J. 155: III. Rondo. Presto 06:50
• Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282:
• 7 Weber: Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282: Larghetto affettuoso 04:50
• 8 Weber: Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282: Allegro passionato 04:00
• 9 Weber: Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282: Adagio 00:26
• 10 Weber: Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282: Tempo di marcia 01:54
• 11 Weber: Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282: Più mosso 04:57
• Total Runtime 55:09

Info for Weber: Complete Works for Piano & Orchestra

Carl Maria von Weber wrote music that has been admired by composers as diverse as Schumann, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky. But in his lifetime he was also recognized as one of the finest pianists of the period, with an exceptional technique and a brilliant gift for improvisation. Especially during the 1810s he toured extensively, and like other composer-pianists he wrote works to use as his personal calling cards, among them the two piano concertos recorded here. They were both composed in 1811-12, but while the First Concerto takes Mozart’s concertos as its model, Piano Concerto No. 2 looks towards Beethoven. This change of direction was probably influenced by the fact that Weber had acquired a score of Beethoven’s recently published Emperor Concerto. In any case there are some striking similarities between his concerto and Beethoven’s: the use of identical keys, and the inclusion of a slow, subtly orchestrated Adagio and a closing playful rondo in 6/8. Weber is unmistakably Weber, however: a highly original orchestrator whose music is at turns brilliant, melancholy and charming. These qualities are to the fore also in the Konzertstück from 1821, in which the composer liberates himself from Classical models and finds a new path. Much admired by Liszt, the work is a kind of symphonic poem in four sections, played without a break. Following highly acclaimed recordings of the complete concertos by Mozart and Beethoven as well as Mendelssohn, this disc brings the team of Ronald Brautigam and Kölner Akademie to the very crossroads of Classicism and Romanticism.

Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano
Die Kölner Akademie
Michael Alexander Willens, conductor

No biography found.

Booklet for Weber: Complete Works for Piano & Orchestra