Carl Maria von Weber is best-known as a master of Romantic opera, but he was originally a virtuoso pianist who created a substantial amount of piano music for concert use. Next to his four piano sonatas, the five large and brilliant concert pieces brought together in this book, and two final variation cycles, are certainly his most important piano solo pieces. From the early Momento capriccioso op. 12 of 1808 to the dazzling Aufforderung zum Tanx op. 65 and Polacca brillante op. 72, it is possible to trace by these technically-demanding works the composer/pianist's development of a very mature and impressive formal compositional mastery. In the extensive preface to this thoroughly-researched Urtext edition one can read, among other things, the underlying programme that Weber came up with for the Aufforderung zum Tanz.