Shortly after completing his First Symphony Weber composed the Second Symphony, which emerged during the later part of January 1807. Like the First Symphony, the Second is a work in four movements. The Symphony makes use of the same forces required for the First, yet the treatment of form shows Weber moving away from conventional models of the Symphony.

The first movement (Allegro) begins like the opening of the First Symphony, but proceeds with more extended thematic material. The orchestration itself is more varied and colored than in the earlier work. Weber associates specific thematic material with instrumental colors, and this allows him to reserve tutti passages for climaxes. In treating sonata form in this movement Weber conforms with more conventional practice, and allows for extended tonal areas, rather than the more motivally oriented approach he took in the First Symphony.

In the second movement (Adagio ma non troppo), Weber composed a relatively short movement in which he featured winds in exposed passages. Its scoring is more reminiscent of chamber music than more expansive orchestral colors and textures. The third movement is a Menuetto (Allegro) and in using this form, Weber reaches back to eighteenth-century conventions to balance the slow movement. It is a very short movement that almost serves as a bridge to the fourth movement. The Finale is of interest for Weber having labeled the movement "Scherzo" (Presto). The term suggests more the character of the piece than a formal convention. In terms of structure, the Finale is a rondo that provides an appropriate conclusion to this work.

Of Weber's two symphonies, the Second is the less successful of the two. Given the relatively short time in which he composed it, the score may suffer from having been rushed to completion. The promise of the first movement is simply not met in the others, which do not match its dimensions. Nevertheless, the mastery of orchestral colors and textures is clearly present in the Second Symphony, and the kind of play between orchestral groups that is part of this work emerges later with more nuance in the works for piano and orchestra.





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