ABSTRACT
So long as Ludwig van Beethoven lived his musical supremacy was unchallenged, but he was far from being the only star in the musical firmament of that time. Of the others the brightest was Weber, who was born sixteen years after Beethoven, and died one year before him. Weber and Beethoven met but once in the flesh, when the former came to Vienna to supervise the production of "Euryanthe" in 1823; but each of them knew the other's music well and had subjected it to some severe criticism. Weber's career, as pictured in his music, is the story of the gradual development of a beautiful and even noble character in the teeth of untoward circumstances. That he was a man of the strength and individuality of Beethoven cannot be maintained for a moment. A few of Weber's early compositions have survived, but the greater part he was wise enough himself to destroy.
