The little-known overture to this opera was written in Salzburg in 1801 by the young Carl Maria von Weber at the age of 15, under the watchful eye of his teacher Michael Haydn. According to the latter, this youthful opera was written "according to the true rules of counterpoint, with much fire and delicacy, and appropriately to the text". While the dialogue from this singspiel has been lost, the music has survived in full. The work attracted little attention at its début at Augsburg in 1803. A charming, light work, Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn is a musical setting of a mediocre libretto inspired by the novel of the same name by Carl Gottlob Cramer, a writer whose terrifying stories won him lasting fame. Against the backdrop of the French Revolution, the story follows characters who, uprooted, find themselves in the cellars of a German castle. The listener will note the skill of the young composer and his sense for melody, which is striking from the end of the pleasant overture that announces a cheery comedy with absolutely no political content. The numbers follow in a fairly conventional way. But what's quirky about this score is its orchestration, which has Weber using quite rare instruments like recorders, basset horns, piccolos or solo trombones. This new version, conducted by Roberto Paternostro, was recorded in concert on 23 January 2019 in the famous An der Wien theatre, a historic hall whose construction was driven by Schikaneder, the impresario and librettist of Mozart's Magic Flute. It was also here that many scores by Beethoven, Johann Strauss II and Franz Lehár were first heard. © François Hudry/Qobuz