Jubel Overture

All the overtures for which Weber is best known - Der Freischütz, Euryanthe, Oberon, to name only three- were written for the opera house. While making brilliant use of themes from the operas they were intended to introduce, they have in most cases outshone them. The Jubel (or “Jubilee”) Overture is different. Like the Jubel Cantata, it was written in 1818 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the accession of Friedrich August III, King of Saxony, who had recently appointed the composer to the post of Music Director at the German Opera in Dresden.

So, while the Weber we know is unmistakably present in the central Presto of the Jubel Overture - this section is actually based on material from a long since discarded opera called Rübezahl - he is scarcely recognisable in the outer sections. Uncharacteristic though it is, the ceremonial opening Adagio is impressive enough to have been echoing in Wagner’s memory, however faintly, when he came to write the Meistersinger Overture fifty years later. The last section is a splendid orchestral version (originally arranged for Weber’s cantata Kampf und Sieg) of the Saxon national anthem. Although the words of Heil dir im Siegerkranz would not be familiar to a British audience today, the melody surely is.