Mendelssohn: Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60, MWV D 3

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's Artistic Vision

Goethe's ballad, which inspired Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht, symbolizes a recurring historical process where established traditions are challenged and displaced by innovation.

Performer Biography

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

Compositional Technique

In Mendelssohn's Oedipus at Colonus, the interval of the tritone is used to symbolize Oedipus's defilement, appearing as both a melodic gesture and a harmonic component.

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 in the Harz Mountains.

Composition History

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

Composer Biography

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, at age 12, was called a 'second Mozart' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the renowned German poet and dramatist.

Composition History

Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht underwent a significant revision a decade after its initial completion, with the composer rewriting it 'from A to Z'.