Weber's two youthful symphonies have been turning up more regularly on records in recent years, and though they will never be repertory pieces they are well worth this attention. Broadly speaking, they rest romantic ideas on classical premises and Georgiadis stresses the classical. He keeps textures simple, and although there is a proper attention to the viola tone for which Weber was already beginning to show such affection, he makes the orchestra sound more of the eighteenth than of the nineteenth century. There are passages where he chooses to ignore the dynamic markings, and in No. 2 there are even one or two deviations from what is so far (until the new edition gets this far) the most reliable score, the Eulenberg miniature. The recording is not always helpful, with rather a resonant acoustic that does not give enough clarity to textures that are sharp and original, and sets the all-important oboe at a distance; but the playing, too, could do with a greater degree of sharpness.
It is useful to have some attractive Weber rarities also included. The Turandot music is based on the quirky little Chinese tune which Weber exploited throughout the incidental music (and to which Hindemith gave a further twist for his Weber Metamorphoses), and its use is curiously haunting. Two Silvana dances, from the celebratory finale, do not really give much indication of the nature of a completely neglected opera which deserves another look from posterity. The Drei Pintos interlude was composed by Mahler on some themes from obscure Weber pieces which he used to fill out the incomplete opera: it is a charming little piece, and if nothing else indicates how close the two composers' imaginations lay.'