Weber was only 25 when Munich court bassoonist Georg Friedrich Brandt asked him for a concerto, and he produced one of the two most significant works in the instrument's limited concerto repertoire (the other being Mozart's). Eleven years later, in 1822, Weber prepared the concerto for publication, making a few alterations along the way. Most of the changes were small, affecting details of the solo part and string scoring and expanding a couple of tutti passages. More significantly, though, Weber decided not to introduce the first movement's second theme in a minor key. Some bassoonists feel that this brightening to a major mode deprives the music of necessary atmosphere and a few have revived the original version. Otherwise, few listeners will notice much difference between the two editions.

The first movement, Allegro ma non troppo, follows the period's usual template. The orchestra succinctly lays out two highly contrasting themes—a martial statement soothed by a much more lyrical melody—whereupon the bassoonist appropriates them, with minimal orchestral accompaniment. Weber gets down to the business of development with alacrity, lavishing bravura passagework upon the soloist, and emphasizing the march tune. He recapitulates the themes and efficiently moves into the coda without offering the soloist a real cadenza. The highly lyrical Adagio could be an aria lifted from one of Weber's operas, complete with a horn-accompanied middle section that calls Der Freischütz to mind. The soloist takes the briefest of cadenzas, lingering in its high register just before the end. The concluding Rondo (Allegro) finds the bassoon itself introducing the insouciant main theme, then pursuing it and commenting on it through the intervening episodes that either are splattered with rapid-fire notes or send the bassoon bumping up and down its range.

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