Carl Maria von Weber, Robert Schumann, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky embody the beginning and the end of an era of lyricism and passion that transformed the world of music. Schumann and Tchaikovsky were born only sixteen years before the deaths of their predecessors, thus forming a triad through which the German-Russian musical tradition was born, developed, and ultimately brought to completion. Weber laid the foundations of musical Romanticism, Schumann led it to full maturity, and Tchaikovsky embodied its culmination. Together, they offer a complete and coherent vision of a unique and unrepeatable artistic era.