Archive Item of the Month – March 2021

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (1786-1826)

Pencil drawing of Weber by an anonymous artist; [1826]. Presented to the RSM in 1908. 

Weber arrived in England on 4 March 1826. He had travelled from Dresden, via Paris, and after a night at Dover following the crossing of the Channel, he took an express coach to London at 8 a.m. on 5 March where he was met by Sir George Smart in the late afternoon. 

Writing in the previous December, Smart had invited Weber to stay at his house in Great Portland Street (no.91, later renumbered to 103 in the mid-nineteenth century), a residence close to the RSM’s current address; Smart was acting on behalf of Charles Kemble (1775-1854), who, as joint proprietor of the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, was organising the season of Lenten oratorios. Kemble’s invitation to Weber was to conduct the six concerts for this period, although Weber only committed to the final four (8, 10, 15 and 17 March). Weber had replied to Smart, somewhat presciently: “With gratitude I acknowledge your repeated invitation to come in your house, and I consent gratefully to give you this burden, as it is your will” (Leaves from the Journals of Sir George Smart, p.241). Smart had a room especially for the composer, with piano, and Weber finished the composition of his opera Oberon there, with rehearsals commencing just three days later on 9 March. His travelling companion, the flautist Anton Fürstenau (1792-1852), lodged with a German locksmith (Heinke) nearby. 

A march composed expressly for the Royal Society of Musicians by Carl Maria Von Weber; performed for the first time at the anniversary dinner on Saturday May 13, 1826.  [London]: 1826.

During his time in London Weber composed, rehearsed, and conducted the concerts of the Lenten season in March, the Philharmonic Society’s concert on 3 April, had a benefit performance on 26 April at the Argyll Rooms, and rehearsed and conducted his new opera, Oberon, which was performed on twelve occasions. The RSM’s annual festival was held on 13 May and Weber, having been requested to write something, had rewritten a march from his earlier Für Harmonie-Musik (Jähns 307), for strings and winds. The Archive holds the manuscript and a copy of the programme from the first performance. 

Selection of music to be performed at the Anniversary Festival, May 13, 1826. Held at The New Argyll Rooms. Programme, with lists of stewards and performers and statement of financial accounts for the year 1825. Printed by G. Woodfall. 

Weber had been distinctly unwell throughout the whole of this period and died in Smart’s house in the early hours of 5 June. 

Further literature: 

1. Warrack, John, Carl Maria von Weber (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1968). 
2. Cox, Hugh Bertram and Cox, C.L.E., Leaves from the Journals of Sir George Smart (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1907). 
3. Weber in London, 1826: selections from Weber’s letters to his wife, translated by Noel Currer-Briggs, and from the writings of his contemporaries in London in 1826 by Hermione Hobhouse; Weber’s legacy by John Warrack edited by David Reynolds.  (London: Oswald Wolff, 1976).