While Carl Maria von Weber's importance is largely tied to opera and to his role in establishing the Romantic movement, his piano compositions are also important, as both Liszt and Chopin attested. The four sonatas must stand at the core of his solo output and although the Fourth (1819-22) is generally acknowledged as the finest, the First here is quite an imaginative, powerful composition in its own right. Cast in four movements, the sonata already divulges the composer's quite distinctive style, which augurs Chopin and often features a singing line of great beauty. The opening panel, marked Allegro, clearly has a Chopin-esque quality. Its playful, colorful main theme and imaginative virtuosic writing—not to mention the opening downward scale, which eerily anticipates the opening of the "Revolutionary Etude"—delightfully call Chopin to mind and deftly engage the listener. The singing quality mentioned above can be found in the dramatic Adagio second movement, whose middle section is particularly lovely. Again, the music here augurs Chopin. The third movement, Minuetto: Allegro, is delightful in its splashy colors and vigorous playfulness. Weber nicknamed the finale "L'infatigable," an appropriate tag for this Rondo. Marked Presto, it brims with energy and wit, its happy notes speeding by like feline patter until the approaching ending, when the music turns muscular and rollicking.

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