Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream & Symphony No. 4

Featuring

Alexander Liebreich
Lydia Teuscher
Christiane Iven
Münchener Kammerorchester
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

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Notable Performances

Despite dramaturgical issues due to Ludwig Tieck's adaptation of Shakespeare's play, the 1843 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with Mendelssohn's music was a great success, with 170 performances in Berlin alone by 1885.

Composition History

Mendelssohn completed his famous Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream at the age of seventeen, in August 1826.

Composition History

Mendelssohn began composing his 'Italian' Symphony, Symphony No. 4, during his Grand Tour of Italy, inspired by the country's 'warmth, mildness and joviality'.

Composition History

Mendelssohn's incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, including the famous Wedding March, was commissioned by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV for a production in Potsdam in 1843.

Critical Reception

The Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream was praised by Robert Schumann, a prominent composer and critic, who noted its maturity and imaginative quality.

Compositional Technique

The slow movement of Mendelssohn's 'Italian' Symphony contains a tribute to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Carl Friedrich Zelter, Mendelssohn's composition teacher, drawing on Zelter's setting of a Goethe ballad.

Composer Biography

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the composer, had a childhood love for Shakespeare's plays, especially A Midsummer Night's Dream, as recalled by his sister Fanny.