Classical Music | Music for Duo

Recorded on 02/19/2008, uploaded on 01/15/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Regarded as the first concert overture, Felix Mendelssohn composed his overture to William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1826, at the age of seventeen. Originally, it was written with no intention of being performed as a prelude to a performance Shakespeare’s play. Sixteen years later, however, Mendelssohn incorporated the overture into his incidental music for the play commissioned by King Frederick William IV of Prussia, which includes the immensely famous Wedding March.

The overture is a fine example of Classical form infused with the fiery spirit of Romanticism. Soft, sustained chords in E major open the work, immediately evoking the mythical and supernatural setting of the play. At once, a sprightly melody in the violins, forming the sonata form’s first theme, commences representing the fairies’ dance. A transitional passage follows with a stately theme employing the full orchestra depicting the royal music of the court of Athens. The movement’s second theme, a lyrical tune beginning in the strings, follows in B major (the dominant key). Finally, the exposition closes with a third thematic section, which includes an example of Mendelssohn’s ingenious instrumental effects—the braying of Bottom as a donkey. The development section of the movement, beginning in B minor, is dominated almost entirely by the dancing of the fairies, with only subtle hints of the exposition’s other themes. Sustained chords announce the arrival of the recapitulation, which follows, in ordinary fashion and with the expected alterations, the outline of the exposition. The coda returns to the fairies’ theme, mimicking the progression of Shakespeare’s play and, finally, the same sustained chords that opened the work bring it to a close.

In February 1827, the work was premiered at a concert in Stettin (now a part of Poland), which also included a performance of Mendelssohn’s Concerto in A flat Major for Two Pianos and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The concert was Mendelssohn’s first public appearance.      Joseph DuBose

A Midsummer Night's Dream                 Felix Mendelssohn

Original version for piano, four hands by the composer

Ouverture; Scherzo; Intermezzo; Notturno; Hochzeitmarsch (Wedding March)

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy composed the incidental music to Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream in two parts. The overture was composed during the summer of 1826, when he was 17 years old. The four hands version of the Overture was probably composed concurrently with the orchestral version and was performed by Felix and his sister Fanny a few months later.

The composer, who did not generally believe in descriptive aids to understanding a musical composition, rather grudgingly commented on his inspiration for the overture, stating that it followed the play closely and "at the end, after everything has been satisfactory settled and the principal players have joyfully left the stage, the elves follow them, bless the house and disappear with the dawn. So the play ends, as does my overture". All the romantic and programmatic associations aside, the structure of the music stands by itself as one of the genius works of the 19^th century.

The remaining parts of the work were written in or around 1843. Although written more than 16 years later, they retain the original style and spirit of young Mendelssohn, not least by using motives taken from the Overture both directly or subliminally.

Although technically demanding, Mendelssohn succeeded marvelously in transforming the filigree of the orchestral piece to the piano, creating a colorful, brilliant and witty texture.

For today's concert we are playing from the 1847 Breitkopf & Härtel edition, which we found in a private music collection in Switzerland in January 2003.

Sivan Silver & Gil Garburg

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.