April 13 – The first Dresden opera house in Germany opens with the performance of a work by Carl Maria von Weber.
Robert Schumann writes two symphonies: Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, opus 38 (also called the "Spring" symphony), and Symphony No. 4 in D minor, opus 120. (The D-minor symphony is edited extensively by Schumann in 1851, and thus is given a much later opus number and subsequently referred to as No. 4, although it is actually his second.)[citation needed]
Nikolay Afanas'yev resigns as concertmaster of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in order to conduct the serf orchestra of a wealthy landowner at Vïksa, near St Petersburg.