Mendelssohn: Overture & Incidental music to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Featuring

Iván Fischer
Anna Lucia Richter
Barbara Kozelj
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Pro Musica Women's Choir, Nyíregyháza
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Fanny Hensel

Did you know?

1/7

Interpretation

The Budapest Festival Orchestra, led by Iván Fischer, aims for a total absence of daily routine in their performances, making every concert a "joyful discovery of uncharted territory."

Performer Biography

The Budapest Festival Orchestra is recognized as the youngest among the top 10 ranked ensembles in the world.

Performer Biography

Iván Fischer, the founder and Music Director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, has also gained a reputation as a composer, with his works performed internationally.

Historical Context

During Nazi Germany, Mendelssohn's music was forbidden, his scores burned, and his statue in Leipzig torn down, not for his music but because he was Jewish.

Composer Biography

Felix Mendelssohn, at age nineteen, sparked the ongoing Bach revival by performing Bach's St Matthew Passion for the first time since its premiere a century earlier.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Iván Fischer states that this recording of Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream was made for fairies, believing they listen differently and will understand its hidden messages.

Critical Reception

Even under the Nazi regime, Hans Pfitzner and Richard Strauss declared it impossible to find a replacement for Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, acknowledging its undisputed brilliance.