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Program Notes Overture to Oberon CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786-1826) Anyone who has played in a high school orchestra is likely to know this almost indestructible overture, which has far eclipsed the opera it was writ- ten to introduce. If your school ensemble had a French hom player who could make it through the opening three-note solo, the Overture to Oberon was off and running. Even inelegant playing could not quench its fire, drama, excitement, color, and elan. Perfbrmed by a fine symphony orchestra, such as Dresden’s, it is rousing and splendid. Rousing, also, must have been the premiere performance of overture and opera in London, even if one were to judge only by the playbill for that glamorous event. We cannot reproduce it here, with its variety of type- faces and an eye-catching layout, but can repeat a bit of the opening text: “Never Acted. Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden, this present Wednesday, April 12, 1826. Will be perfbrmed (for the first time) a Grand Romantic and Fairy Opera, in three acts (Founded on Wieland’s celebrated Poem) entitled OBERON: or, The Elf-King’s Oath, with entirely new Music, Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations. The OVERTURE and the whole of the MUSIC composed by CARL MARIA VON WEBER, who will preside this Evening in the Orchestra...” Weber “presided” that evening, literally at the risk of his life; he was in the final stages of tuberculosis. Eight weeks later he died. He was 39. Weber was one of the greatest pianists and one of the greatest Com posers of the first half of the 19th Century. He has been described as the first of the true Romantics —Beethoven excepted. He was a first-rate music critic. His personal motto was “Beharrlichkeit führt zum Ziel” (“Perseverance leads to the goal”). Concerto in C major, Opus 56 for Molin, Cello, and Piano LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) In commenting on any piece of music by Beethoven, there always is the temptation to begin: “This was a difficult period in the composer’s