Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 –
1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was
a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of
the early romantic period. Mendelssohn wrote
symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano music and
chamber music. His best-known works include his
Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's
Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the
overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, and
his String Octet. His Songs With...(+)
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 –
1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was
a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of
the early romantic period. Mendelssohn wrote
symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano music and
chamber music. His best-known works include his
Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's
Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the
overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, and
his String Octet. His Songs Without Words are his most
famous solo piano compositions. After a long period of
relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and
antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
his creative originality has been re-evaluated. He is
now among the most popular composers of the romantic
era.
Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, and
revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach,
notably with his performance of the St Matthew Passion
in 1829. He became well received in his travels
throughout Europe as a composer, conductor and soloist;
his ten visits to Britain – during which many of his
major works were premiered – form an important part
of his adult career. His essentially conservative
musical tastes set him apart from more adventurous
musical contemporaries such as Franz Liszt, Richard
Wagner, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Hector Berlioz. The
Leipzig Conservatoire, which he founded, became a
bastion of this anti-radical outlook.
On two occasions, Felix Mendelssohn composed music for
William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream
(in German Ein Sommernachtstraum). First in 1826, near
the start of his career, he wrote a concert overture
(Op. 21). Later, in 1842, only a few years before his
death, he wrote incidental music (Op. 61) for a
production of the play, into which he incorporated the
existing overture. The incidental music includes the
famous "Wedding March". Mendelssohn wrote the
incidental music, Op. 61, for A Midsummer Night's Dream
in 1842, 16 years after he wrote the overture. It was
written to a commission from King Frederick William IV
of Prussia. Mendelssohn was by then the music director
of the King's Academy of the Arts and of the Leipzig
Gewandhaus Orchestra.[7] A successful presentation of
Sophocles' Antigone on 28 October 1841 at the New
Palace in Potsdam, with music by Mendelssohn (Op. 55)
led to the King asking him for more such music, to
plays he especially enjoyed. A Midsummer Night's Dream
was produced on 14 October 1843, also at Potsdam. The
producer was Ludwig Tieck. This was followed by
incidental music for Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus
(Potsdam, 1 November 1845; published posthumously as
Op. 93) and Jean Racine's Athalie (Berlin, 1 December
1845; Op. 74).
The overture is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two
clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets,
ophicleide, timpani and strings. The ophicleide part
was originally written for English bass horn ("corno
inglese di basso"), which was also used at the first
performance; the composer subsequently replaced this
instrument with the ophicleide in the first published
edition. The incidental music adds a third trumpet,
three trombones, triangle, cymbals, soprano,
mezzo-soprano and women's chorus to this scoring.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Midsummer_Night%27s_Dr
eam_(Mendelssohn)).
Although originally composed for Orchestra, I created
this Interpretation of the Intermezzo from "Ein
Sommernachtstraum" (A Midsummer Night's Dream Op. 61
No. 5) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet, French Horn
& Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola, Cello & Bass).
