Overture to Der Freischütz

Weber conducted the first performance of Der Freischutz at the new Schauspielhaus in Berlin on 18 June 1821, and the evening turned into a demonstration of German national feeling against the Italian and French opera then dominant in the city. The overture is built entirely from themes of the opera and follows its argument: the horn quartet of the forest, the tremolo and diminished harmony of the Wolf's Glen, and the C major of Agathe's music breaking through at the end. It is played on its own more often than the opera is staged.