Steibelt and Woelfl both measured themselves with Beethoven in the art of improvisation.  The former was so ignominiously defeated that he never ventured to meet his rival again.  Woelfl, however, fared better.  With his long fingers he could accomplish wonders on the instrument; but only so far as technique was concerned did he surpass Beethoven.

Carl Maria v.  Weber (1786-1826) in early youth studied the pianoforte under two able court organists, J.P.  Heuschkel[103] and J.N.  Kalcher,[104] both of whom he always held in grateful remembrance.  Under the direction of the latter he wrote some pianoforte sonatas, which, according to the statement of his son and biographer, M.M. v.  Weber, were accidentally destroyed.  Later on he studied under Vogler and other masters.  He became a famous pianist, and at Berlin, in 1812, composed his 1st Sonata in C (Op. 24).  No. 2, in A flat (Op. 39), was commenced at Prague in 1814, and completed at Berlin in 1816.  No. 3, in D minor (Op. 49), was also written at Berlin, and in the same year.  No. 4, in E minor (Op. 70), occupied the composer between the years 1819 and 1822; it was written at Hosterwitz, near Dresden, during the time he was at work on his opera Euryanthe.

Weber and Schubert are both classed as contemporaries of Beethoven, yet the latter was also their predecessor.  Of Schubert we shall speak presently.  As regards Weber, it should be remembered that before he had written his sonata in C (Op. 24) Beethoven had already published “Les Adieux” (Op. 81A).  The individuality of the composer of Die Freischuetz was, however, so strong, that we meet with no direct traces of the influence of Beethoven in his pianoforte music.

The Weber sonatas have been described by Dr. P. Spitta as “fantasias in sonata-form,” and this admirably expresses the character of these works.  Weber followed the custom of his day in writing sonatas, but it seems as though he would have accomplished still greater things had he given full rein to his imagination, and allowed subject-matter to determine form.  Like his great contemporary, of whom we have next to speak, Weber, in spite of Vogler’s teaching, was not a strong contrapuntist; he relied chiefly upon melody, harmonic effects, and strong contrasts.  His romantic themes, his picturesque colouring, enchant the ear, and the poetry and passion of his pianoforte music, both intensified by grand technique, stir one’s soul to its very depths; yet the works are of the fantasia, rather than of the sonata order.  We have the letter rather than the true spirit of a sonata.  Place side by side Weber’s Sonata in A flat (the greatest of the four) and Beethoven’s D minor or “Appassionata,” and the difference will be at once felt.  In the latter there is a latent power which is wanting in the former.  It seems as if one could never sound the depths of Beethoven’s music:  fresh study reveals new beauties, new details; the relation of the parts to the whole (not only of the sections