Classical Music | Music for Duo

Recorded on 04/08/2009, uploaded on 06/16/2009

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