Mendelssohn: Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60

Featuring

Renée Morloc
David Fischer
Stephan Genz
David Jerusalem
Frieder Bernius
Kammerchor Stuttgart

Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

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Composer Biography

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the composer, was considered a "second Mozart" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe when Mendelssohn was only 12 years old.

Composition History

Mendelssohn's music for Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus was one of four commissions from Prussian monarch Frederick William IV, who aimed to revive Greek tragedy in Berlin.

Composition History

Mendelssohn extensively revised Die erste Walpurgisnacht a decade after its 1833 premiere, rewriting it "from A to Z" in 1842.

Performer Biography

Frieder Bernius, the conductor, has received numerous international recording prizes, including the International Classical Music Award for his complete recording of Mendelssohn's sacred choral works.

Cultural Impact

Die erste Walpurgisnacht influenced other composers, with Charles Gounod, Joachim Raff, and Charles-Marie Widor all composing their own musical treatments of the Walpurgis Night theme.

Composition History

Mendelssohn's cantata, Die erste Walpurgisnacht, is based on a ballad by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about early medieval pagan rites on May Eve, not on the Walpurgisnachtstraum scene from Faust.

Compositional Technique

In Oedipus at Colonus, Mendelssohn used the dissonant musical interval of the tritone to symbolize Oedipus's defilement, integrating it as both a melodic gesture and harmonic component throughout the score.