Mendelssohn - A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture - Classic FM Schedule Mendelssohn - A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture Felix Mendelssohn wrote his A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture when he was only 17, but he didn't finish the job until 16 years later… Almost unbelievably, Felix Mendelssohn wrote this zipping overture when he was just 17 years old. The wunderkind was sure to include all sorts of special effects too - ones that are completely in keeping with Shakespeare's original play. So, you'll hear the scuttling feet of fairies as they scamper about the stage, and even the braying of poor Bottom, who is turned into an ass. Legend has it that Mendelssohn had to battle through a ferocious snow storm to even attend the overture's premiere in 1827. It was his first public appearance, and surely marked the dawning of a major new musical talent in Europe. Even if he wasn't 17 years old when he wrote it, it's a remarkably sophisticated work - broadly romantic in sound, it actually adheres to a more old-fashioned, classical structure.

Strangely, it wasn't until 16 years later in 1842 that Mendelssohn wrote the incidental music for a production of the play, by which time you'd expect him to have evolved his compositional style somewhat. However, it's perfectly common to hear an orchestral suite of not only the Overture, but several highlights from the incidental music too. Mendelssohn News Marin Alsop's Guide To Mendelssohn's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' : Deceptive Cadence : NPR Marin Alsop's Guide To Mendelssohn's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Embed Embed Marin Alsop's Guide To Mendelssohn's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Marin Alsop's Guide To Mendelssohn's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Embed Embed Titania awakes clinging rapturously to Bottom, still wearing the donkey's head, in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Mendelssohn wrote music for a production of the play in 1843.

Henry Fuseli/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Henry Fuseli/Getty Images Titania awakes clinging rapturously to Bottom, still wearing the donkey's head, in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Mendelssohn wrote music for a production of the play in 1843. Henry Fuseli/Getty Images Growing up as a violinist, Felix Mendelssohn 's Violin Concerto ranked among my top 10 Holy Grail pieces. As I got older, I moved on to his Octet and Piano Trio in D minor, which became two of my favorite chamber works. There's almost nothing comparable to playing Mendelssohn's Octet with seven great string players. It's absolutely thrilling, energetic, virtuosic, youthful, fun and challenging. And to think that Mendelssohn wrote it when he was just 16. Only a year later, at the ripe age of 17, he wrote his Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, completely capturing the magic and frivolity in the ethereal world Shakespeare created.

Mendelssohn first performed the overture in a version for two pianos, with his sister Fanny , and then orchestrated it for a public performance the following year. Mendelssohn was probably the greatest child prodigy since Mozart . He began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was 6 and made his first public concert appearance at the age of 9. As a child he was also a prolific composer, with five short operas and 11 symphonies to his credit by his early teens. Article continues after sponsorship It would be another 16 years before he returned to the overture to use it as the DNA for the complete incidental music he composed to accompany an actual performance of the play. And how perfectly Mendelssohn captures the spirit and essence of Shakespeare. Mendelssohn's overture is in the key of E major and he begins it with four magical, suspenseful and transforming chords. For me, these opening chords capture the essence, even the moral of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play about unexpected turns in love and life.

("The course of true love never did run smooth.") Following those chords is the first theme, a scurrying, busy motif in the parallel relative minor (E minor) representing the dancing fairies. A fanfare-like transition (the royal music of the court of Athens) leads to a second, lyrical theme for the lovers. A final group of themes, suggesting the craftsmen and hunting calls, closes the exposition. The fairies dominate as the next section develops, and ultimately have the final word in the coda, just as in Shakespeare's play. But of course there couldn't be Midsummer music without a reference to Bottom, who gets turned into a donkey and is depicted with a braying "hee-haw" in the strings. Mendelssohn brilliantly incorporated the overture into his incidental music as the first of its 14 numbers and the inspiration for the entire score.

Marin Alsop's Guide To Mendelssohn's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' - Music Music Marin Alsop’s Guide To Mendelssohn’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by: Marin Alsop May 24, 2014 Growing up as a violinist, Felix Mendelssohn ‘s Violin Concerto ranked among my top 10 Holy Grail pieces. As I got older, I moved on to his Octet and Piano Trio in D minor, which became two of my favorite chamber works. There’s almost nothing comparable to playing Mendelssohn’s Octet with seven great string players. It’s absolutely thrilling, energetic, virtuosic, youthful, fun and challenging. And to think that Mendelssohn wrote it when he was just 16. Only a year later, at the ripe age of 17, he wrote his Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, completely capturing the magic and frivolity in the ethereal world Shakespeare created. Mendelssohn first performed the overture in a version for two pianos, with his sister Fanny , and then orchestrated it for a public performance the following year.

Mendelssohn was probably the greatest child prodigy since Mozart . He began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was 6 and made his first public concert appearance at the age of 9. As a child he was also a prolific composer, with five short operas and 11 symphonies to his credit by his early teens. It would be another 16 years before he returned to the overture to use it as the DNA for the complete incidental music he composed to accompany an actual performance of the play. And how perfectly Mendelssohn captures the spirit and essence of Shakespeare. Mendelssohn’s overture is in the key of E major and he begins it with four magical, suspenseful and transforming chords. For me, these opening chords capture the essence, even the moral of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play about unexpected turns in love and life. (“The course of true love never did run smooth.”) Following those chords is the first theme, a scurrying, busy motif in the parallel relative minor (E minor) representing the dancing fairies. A fanfare-like transition (the royal music of the court of Athens) leads to a second, lyrical theme for the lovers.

A final group of themes, suggesting the craftsmen and hunting calls, closes the exposition. The fairies dominate as the next section develops, and ultimately have the final word in the coda, just as in Shakespeare’s play. But of course there couldn’t be Midsummer music without a reference to Bottom, who gets turned into a donkey and is depicted with a braying “hee-haw” in the strings. Mendelssohn brilliantly incorporated the overture into his incidental music as the first of its 14 numbers and the inspiration for the entire score. The famous “Wedding March,” which we still hear accompanying brides down aisles, was adopted by Princess Victoria in 1858 for her wedding to Prince William of Prussia. The bride’s mother, Queen Victoria, loved Mendelssohn’s music. I’m sure she never imagined the tradition she started by having it played at her daughter’s wedding. Along with music, Mendelssohn loved language and was extremely well-read. Within his deft grasp of the Shakespeare, he also includes several vocal numbers in the incidental music, representing the actual voices of the fairies.

Songs such as “Over hill, over dale,” “The Spells,” and “What hempen homespuns” enhance Shakespeare’s text and mimic Shakespeare’s ingeniously devised play within a play. Act 1 is played without music. The Scherzo, with its whimsical interplay between strings and woodwinds, acts as an intermezzo between Acts 1 and 2. It leads directly into the first melodrama with text spoken over music. Oberon’s arrival is accompanied by a fairy march, scored with triangle and cymbals, a gesture to his unique role as a god. The vocal piece “Ye spotted snakes” opens the second scene of Act 2. The second intermezzo comes at the end of that act, while Act 3 includes a quaint march for the entrance of the mechanicals, the cast for the play within the play. Mendelssohn quotes music from the overture to accompany the action. The Nocturne, featuring one of the loveliest horn solos ever written, accompanies the sleeping lovers between Acts 3 and 4.

There is only one melodrama in Act 4 and it closes with a reprise of the Nocturne to accompany the mortal lovers’ sleep. We first hear the Wedding March between Acts 4 and 5, the latter containing more music than any other act, especially to accompany the wedding feast. There is a brief fanfare for trumpets and timpani, a parody of a funeral march, and a peasant dance that uses Bottom’s braying from the overture as its main thematic material. The play has three short epilogues. The first is introduced with a reprise of the theme of the Wedding March and the fairy music of the overture. After Puck’s speech, the final musical number is heard — “Through the house give glimmering light,” scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano and women’s chorus. Puck’s famous valedictory speech “If we shadows have offended” is accompanied, as day breaks, by the four chords first heard at the very beginning of the overture, bringing the work full circle.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains one of my favorite lines of all time: “Lord what fools these mortals be!” But when I hear Mendelssohn’s music all I can think is: Lord how brilliant can one man be? Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit Transcript : SCOTT SIMON, HOST: With the Memorial Day weekend comes the unofficial change of season. And next week, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra helps usher it in with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” A collaboration with Washington, D.C.’s Folger Theater, the production of Shakespeare’s play will include the famous incidental music that was written by Felix Mendelssohn. We’re joined now from the studios of WYPR in Baltimore by our friend Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Maestro, thanks very much for being with us again. MARIN ALSOP: Oh, my pleasure to be here, Scott. SIMON: A big show you have going on, isn’t it? ALSOP: Yeah, it’s – I mean, it’s just so perfect for this time of year, isn’t it? I mean, when the seasons change and love is in the air and poetry abounds.

But it’s going to be an incredible production. It’s directed by a wonderful director named Ed Berkeley, and we have seven actors playing the roles of 21 characters. Actors from John Bolger from “Law and Order” – I remember him from General Hospital – Linda Powell from “Chicago Fire.” We have just a great cast. SIMON: And I think nothing denotes the arrival of summer more than a casting call for dogs. I wonder if you can tell me about that. ALSOP: (Laughter) Well, we have and incredible… SIMON: They’re looking at me in the control room. Like, I thought that was a pretty smooth transition, don’t you? ALSOP: Yeah, really. Well, there are so many things going on in this play. You can throw a dog in. You could probably even thrown an elephant in and nobody would notice. SIMON: Well, let’s listen to the music, of course, too. We have a recording, I guess, with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Philharmonic Orchestra. (SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITION, “OVERTURE FROM MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”) SIMON: This music has such authority.

And it’s sobering when you come to terms with the fact that Felix Mendelssohn was a teenager when he wrote it. ALSOP: Mendelssohn was only 17 years old when he wrote this overture. And the thing that we forget is that Mendelssohn was, really, the next great child prodigy after Mozart. So he had been composing since he was a little tot. And by the time he was a teenager, he’d already written 12 symphonies and five operas. So this was not unexpected. But the quality of this overture and the way it captures Shakespeare’s drama… SIMON: Yeah. ALSOP: …Is truly amazing. SIMON: How did he wind up being a part of this play? ALSOP: He wrote this overture as a stand-alone piece. But then, later, much later, 16 years later, he was asked to write incidental music for the play as a commission from King William the Fourth of Prussia. And so I don’t think you say no to those kind of kings.

And he did the incidental music for the entire play, but he went back to his overture and he used it as the DNA for all of the incidental music. (SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITION, “SCHERZO FROM MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”) ALSOP: One of the pieces that is often excerpted from the incidental music is called “Scherzo from Midsummer Night’s Dream.” And this is the piece that really introduces the forest and the idea of the fairies and all the busyness going on with them. (SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITION, “SCHERZO FROM MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”) ALSOP: And of course, we’re going to be introduced to the wonderful character of Puck, who really is the perpetrator of so much of the mischief on behalf of Oberon. So Puck will get the sleeping potion and puts it on their eyelids so that when they wake up, they fall in love with whomever they see. Of course, Oberon wants to play a trick on Titania, his wife. And so when she wakes up, the first character she sees is Bottom, who’s been turned into the ass.

So she falls madly in love with him. SIMON: Yeah, it’s been known to happen. ALSOP: It does happen, doesn’t it? SIMON: It does happen quite a lot. ALSOP: But these fairies, I think, are – they’re characters unto themselves. And they have their own little drama going on. And what Mendelssohn does so beautifully in the incidental music is he creates worlds and gives actual voice to the fairies themselves as singers. (SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITION, “INCIDENTAL MUSIC FROM A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”) ALSOP: In this number, we can hear these two fairies in the voice of the soprano and the mezzo soprano singing the entire forest to sleep. SIMON: And then… (SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITION, “INCIDENTAL MUSIC FROM A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”) ALSOP: And then, of course, there’re many dramas going on at the same time. And there’re two young couples. One’s in love with the other and the other’s in love. And now, of course, they’ve all run into the forest chasing each other and misunderstanding each other.

(SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITION, “INCIDENTAL MUSIC FROM A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”) ALSOP: There’s this entire drama going on. And what happens in the story is that Puck accidentally, but of course, puts the potion on the wrong person. So well, you know, one wakes up and falls in love with the wrong one, and then everybody’s hooked up to the wrong people. And Oberon gets very angry with Puck and says, look, you really have to fix this mess you’ve made. So Puck goes back into the forest and finally gets everyone to sleep. And that’s the moment when we hear the nocturne, which has one of the most beautiful French horn solos in the literature. (SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITION, “NOCTURNE FROM A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”) ALSOP: Scott, I think this is one of the few moments of genuine calm in the entire play and in the entire music. SIMON: Mhm. ALSOP: And of course, it’s a little bit of a calm before the storm. But finally, things start getting righted. And we can get back to the important things like having the royal wedding.

SIMON: Which introduces, I think, one of the most played pieces of music in the world. (SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITION, “WEDDING MARCH”) ALSOP: I’m not sure how many people know that Mendelssohn wrote the “Wedding March.” But what happened was Princess Victoria used this “Wedding March” for her wedding. It was – I believe in 1858. And it just became part of everyone’s tradition. Thanks to the incidental music from Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” we have the wedding march that we use today. (SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITION, “WEDDING MARCH”) SIMON: Marin, does a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” such as you’re about to undertake remind us that this is a major work in each and every dimension, not just the music with which a lot of people are anecdotally familiar. ALSOP: Well, it has such a reach, doesn’t it? My son just attended a ballet performance the other day of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” And it’s a play that has inspired so many other ancillary artists from different disciplines.

And it’s a play whose moral rings as true today as it did in the moment. And for me, it’s all about the concept of love and love in its – all of its transformations because love never takes that straight line. SIMON: Yeah. ALSOP: But it’s always filled with unexpected detours. SIMON: But it finds a way. ALSOP: Always finds a way in the end. SIMON: Marin Alsop, who is music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Their production with the Folger Theater of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with music by Felix Mendelssohn, takes place next weekend. The maestro joined us from the studios of WYPR in Baltimore. Thanks so much. ALSOP: My pleasure. Thank you, Scott. (SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITION, “WEDDING MARCH”) SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I’m Scott Simon. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Overture and Incidental Music) | LA Phil A Midsummer Night's Dream (Overture and Incidental Music) Composed: 1826 (Overture), 1843 (Incidental Music) Length: 30 minutes Orchestration: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, triangle, and strings First Los Angeles Philharmonic performance: November 30, 1919 (Wedding March); January 16, 1920 (Scherzo); March 7, 1920 (Nocturne); February 17, 1922 (Overture), all with Walter Henry Rothwell conducting; January 21, 1934 (Intermezzo), Otto Klemperer conducting The Midsummer Night's Dream Overture is a startling work, and not because Mendelssohn was only 17 when he wrote it.

His Opus 20 Octet of the previous year established that Mendelssohn was a master capable of anything. But in the Overture, Mendelssohn created a musical genre, and a musical language and expression, unlike any that had come before. It was the first "concert overture," a work intended not to introduce a dramatic presentation, but to represent, complete in itself, a literary work, or story, or place. Music as literature became such a quintessentially Romantic concept, and the concert overture (such as Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet), and its offshoot, the tone poem, became so common in the 19th century that it is easy to forget that this one overture started it all. Typical for Mendelssohn, the overture's sounds and concept may be forward-looking, but in form it is very much a traditional sonata. He originally wrote it as a piano duet in 1826, but it is hard to believe that he didn't have much of the orchestration in mind from the beginning. The orchestral version, completed soon after the duet and premiered in 1827, did much to establish his reputation.

In 1833, Mendelssohn wrote to his publishers, who had apparently asked him if there was a specific program to the overture. "I believe it will suffice to remember how the rulers of the elves, Oberon and Titania, constantly appear throughout the play with all their train, now here and now there; then comes Prince Theseus of Athens and joins a hunting party in the forest…then the two pairs of tender lovers, who lose and find themselves; finally the troop of clumsy, coarse tradesmen, who ply their ponderous amusements; then again the elves, who entice all - and on this the piece is constructed. When at the end all is happily resolved… the elves return and bless the house, and disappear as morning arrives. So ends the play, and also my overture." Mendelssohn scored the overture for the same orchestra that had been standard since Mozart's day, with one startling exception. To the strings, timpani, and pairs of woodwinds, horns, and trumpets, he added an ophicleide, a bass brass instrument that works like a woodwind, changing pitch by covering and uncovering holes with keys.

Its sound is coarser than that of the tuba, which had not been invented in 1826. The ophicleide itself had been invented only in 1817, but quickly found a place in bands. Spontini and Berlioz had already used it in serious music, and it would have an illustrious career in the orchestra for a few decades before the even newer tuba supplanted it. But using it in a big orchestra with trombones was a far cry from writing for it in a small orchestra used as sparingly as Mendelssohn used his. The big, uncouth instrument sticks out of the shimmering orchestral texture like Bottom the weaver, with his jackass head, sticks out of the gossamer bower of the fairy queen Titania, which was Mendelssohn's point in using it. It even gets to bray like an ass in the recapitulation. There are no ophicleides in the modern orchestra, of course: the tuba, more elephantine and less asinine, takes it place. The overture is full of memorable touches.

After opening chords define the key of E major, violins in four parts abruptly change to E minor, letting us know that we're entering a different world, and then depict the fairy world in quick notes. Little woodwind fanfare figures that seem inconsequential in the exposition become very mysterious, like spirits popping up from behind mushrooms and then disappearing, in the development. The strings offer their own hee-haws. Loud horn calls evoke both the threatening darkness of the forest and Theseus' hunting party. Mendelssohn was making new sounds here. Many composers had conjured the fairy world before, but no one had been able to do it so convincingly and completely. Few were so willing to lay the orchestra so bare and transparent; the treble-only scampering of the fairies is particularly striking on a program with Beethoven, whose granite-solid textures speak of daylight and very human strength. In 1843, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia asked Mendelssohn to write music for the entire Shakespeare play. Mendelssohn supplied 13 new numbers; not only full-length pieces for scene changes and settings of the song texts in the play, but a few snippets to underlay stage action.

The Scherzo, Intermezzo, Nocturne, and Wedding March on this program all come between acts, showing what a glorious thing a scene change can be. They are presented in their dramatic order, but a reminder of the plot may still be helpful in listening to them, since, unlike the Overture, they each have a specific dramatic purpose. Hermia and Lysander elope into the woods outside Athens so Hermia won't have to marry Demetrius, her father's choice for her. Demetrius follows, as does Helena, who loves Demetrius, who used to love Helena. A band of tradesmen, including Bottom the weaver, go into the forest to rehearse a play they hope to perform at the imminent wedding of Theseus, duke of Athens. In the forest, Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies, are bickering. Oberon casts a spell on Titania to make her fall in love with the first thing she sees, which turns out to be Bottom, given the head of an ass by Puck, Oberon's trickster.

Oberon and Puck also cast love-spells, inaccurately, on Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius, who spend the night falling in and out of love before everyone winds up loving the right person by morning, and the two couples get married in the same ceremony with Theseus and Hippolyta. The Scherzo is the first musical interlude in the play. It comes after Act I, which is set entirely in the human world of Athens and daylight, and sets the stage for the forest, night, and fairy world of Act II. The chiaroscuro sound of flutes, low clarinets, and middle bassoons that opens it is another Mendelssohn innovation; it may bring Tchaikovsky to mind. The Intermezzo begins at the end of Act II, when Hermia, suddenly abandoned by the bewitched Lysander, anxiously sets off into the woods alone to find "either death" or him. Woodwinds and first violins toss an unsettling little motif back and forth over nervous tremolos from the other strings, portraying the strangeness of the woods at night and reflecting Hermia's fear without taking it too seriously in what is, after all, a comedy.

Much of the music would have sounded tonally obscure, and thus spooky, to an 1843 audience. After a few minutes, the music forgets Hermia and turns to Bottom and the other tradesmen, whose rehearsal will begin Act III. They are introduced with a simple peasant-like march, rustic drones and raucous horns. The Nocturne comes at the end of Act III, when Puck finally has each of the four lovers sleeping where he or she will wake up and fall in love with the right person. Mendelssohn gives the melody to the first horn, embraced by the two bassoons, while a clarinet and the second horn drone quietly to evoke the still of night. Later the flutes suggest the proverbial wings of night. In the play, the subtle but majestic beauty of the music is a sublime description of the scene of sleeping lovers, but also an incongruous setup for a visual gag: when it ends the curtain opens on the ridiculous sight of Titania, the fairy queen, in her bower with the ass-headed Bottom. The Wedding March comes at the close of Act IV and leads into the post-wedding party of Act V.

The trombones make their first appearance in the Midsummer Night's Dream music (and only appearance in today's concert), re-establishing the world of humans and daylight, and emphasizing that this a wedding not only of the enchanted lovers, but of the royal Theseus and Hippolyta. -- Lawyer and lutenist Howard Posner has also annotated programs for the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, the Coleman Chamber Concerts, and the Salzburg Festival. How To Buy Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream - Classic FM Classic FM Schedule How To Buy Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream Seiji Ozawa’s recording, with narration from a national treasure, is Classic FM’s top choice of Mendelssohn’s interpretation of a magical night in the woods. ￼Those immortal words “I’ve started so I’ll finish” were taken to the extreme in the case of one Felix Mendelssohn. The German composer was just 17-years-old in 1826 when he composed an overture inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but it wasn’t until 1843 that he completed the rest of the incidental music, which has become so popular – in particular the famous Wedding March.

As children, both Felix and his sister Fanny read the Bard’s work and the play became one of the boy’s favourites, not only in the original English but in a German translation provided by their uncle, writer Ludwig Tieck. The Overture, surely one of the most magical overtures ever composed, was an instinctive response to the play. However it is the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV, we have to thank for the rest of the music. He was such a fan of Mendelssohn’s work that he asked him to write the incidental music for a new production of the comedy to be directed by Tieck. Mendelssohn interlinked the scenes with a series of songs, dances, entr’actes and brief melodramas. The first night was on October 14, 1843 in Potsdam, Germany, with the music taking more plaudits than the performance of the play itself. Each of the recordings is very different. Firstly, André Previn and the LSO perform the Overture and all the incidental music. The lively opening sets the scene for a distinctly alluring reading, including some notable interventions by the two soloists and children’s chorus.

The Nocturne is taken slower than most, but what serene horn playing; Previn is also particularly adept in bringing off the colourful Finale.

THE RECORDING TO OWN ￼￼￼ Kathleen Battle (sop), Frederica Von Stade (mz), Judi Dench (narr), Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 439 897 ■ Lillian Watson ( sop), Delia Wallis (mz), Finchley Children’s Music Group, London Symphony Orchestra/André Previn EMI 574 981 2 ■ Pamela Coburn (sop), Elizabeth von Magnus (mz and narr), Christoph Bantzer (narr), Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Chamber Orchestra of Europe/ Nikolaus Harnoncourt WARNER APEX 2564 67870 WINTER FESTIVAL: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM | New Jersey Symphony Orchestra New Jersey Symphony Orchestra WINTER FESTIVAL: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM 2015–16 Season Discover More Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream is as magical as Shakespeare’s comedy.

Experience them together in this special theatrical presentation: actors from celebrated artistic partner The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey perform alongside Mendelssohn’s score, highlighted by the immortal “Wedding March.” JACQUES LACOMBE conductor THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE OF NEW JERSEY Bonnie J. Monte, artistic director MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY PRIMA VOCE Heather J. Buchanan, director NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Shakespeare Theatre cast and creative team Jesmille Darbouze (Helena) Jonathan Finnegan (Francis Flute / Thisbe) Lindsey Kyler (Hermia) Tim Liu (Tom Snout / Wall) Felix Mayes (Philostrate / Puck) James Michael Reilly (Nick Bottom / Pyramus) Jon Sprik (Demetrius) Patrick Toon (Egeus / Peter Quince) Samantha Reckford, costume designer Jackie Mariani, production stage manager Kristen Saran, wardrobe Friday: Victoria Joel & Christine Rauschenbach Saturday: Karen Levandoski & Lisa Andreacchi Sunday: Karen Levandoski & Cornelia Lotito Compose Your Own Series of three or more concerts!

NJSO Accents #ChoraleYou—Sat, Jan 30, after the concert Lift your voice for the second annual #ChoraleYou—a massive “sing in” in the lobby following the concert. MSU’s Heather Buchanan will conduct a brief rehearsal and performance of Mendelssohn’s “There Shall a Star.” The Winter Festival events are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Jacques Lacombe's final appearance in Princeton and New Brunswick is sponsored by Bank of America. The January 30 concert is generously sponsored by The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey. NJSO Accents in Newark are generously sponsored by the Prudential Foundation. PROGRAM NOTES BY LAURIE SHULMAN, ©2015 For these special theatrical performances, the NJSO and Music Director Jacques Lacombe welcome actors from the Orchestra’s celebrated artistic partner The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, under the direction of Bonnie J. Monte, to perform Shakespeare’s work alongside Mendelssohn’s score. The third time the NJSO and Shakespeare Theatre collaborate will be the biggest project—this presentation will tell the full story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, using an abridged script of the play.

Monte says the challenges of adapting the play to weave between and on top of Mendelssohn’s music and staging a production in which the actors have only the space between the orchestra and the edge of the stage have resulted in exciting new ideas and a unique performance experience. She says: “It’s great for an audience to see this kind of meld, to hear the words that initially inspired the music. They can see why Shakespeare’s words led a composer to make particular parts of the music sweeping or staccato, and the actors and people who are more familiar with the actual spoken words can see how the composer’s music enhances the text that Shakespeare wrote and elevates it to a whole new kind of level. Whether people come from a more symphonic orientation or more theatrical orientation, they get to witness simultaneously how both of these art forms inform each other in a really specific way that you wouldn’t necessarily get if you were reading it one day and then listening to the music two days later. There’s a new kind of enlightenment that occurs. “The partnership between the NJSO and Shakespeare Theatre has enhanced both institutions. These projects have been very exciting and have resulted in a kind of an artistic product that is very different for both of our art forms.

It’s been a thrill to collaborate with Jacques, who has been so open and let me push the envelope in terms of how we interact with the orchestra in very different ways.” MENDELSSOHN: Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Born: c. April 26, 1564 Died: April 23, 1616 Published: October 1600 The story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream may be best explained by dividing it into its three basic units: the Royals and the Lovers, the Mechanicals and the Fairies. The Royals and the Lovers As Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta prepare for their wedding, Egeus, a nobleman of the town, comes before them to seek assistance with his disobedient daughter, Hermia. Egeus wants her to marry Demetrius, but she wants to marry Lysander. According to the law of Athens, she must marry the man her father chooses or die. Theseus acknowledges that Egeus has the law on his side but offers Hermia the alternate choice of becoming a nun.

Lysander and Hermia decide to run away and marry far from Athens. Before they leave, they see Helena, Hermia’s best friend, and tell her of their plans. Helena is in love with Demetrius and, in hope of proving her loyalty to him, tells him of Hermia’s escape. As Lysander and Hermia travel through the woods the following night, Demetrius attempts to track them down with the lovesick Helena close behind. While in the woods, the fairies play tricks on the young lovers. Through magic, Demetrius and Lysander both suddenly fall madly in love with Helena. This confusion leads to a quarrel that Oberon, King of the Fairies, stops. Oberon then has his henchman, Puck, restore the relationships to their rightful state: Demetrius is in love with Helena, and Lysander is in love with Hermia. When they wake the next morning, the Duke overrides the law and decides to allow Lysander and Hermia to marry. Demetrius, transformed by the evening in the woods, proclaims his renewed love for Helena. They joyously return to Athens and are married alongside Theseus and Hippolyta.

The Mechanicals Several of the workers of Athens have decided to perform a play for the Duke on his wedding day. Peter Quince, a local carpenter, gathers the craftsmen thought best skilled to perform the play—Nick Bottom, Francis Flute, Robin Starveling, Tom Snout and Snug. Bottom, a weaver with great acting aspirations, is cast as Pyramus, a noble young warrior. Flute, a young man with a high voice, is cast as Thisbe, the girl that Pyramus loves. The group decides to rehearse in the woods outside town so they won’t be disturbed. When they meet to rehearse, they too are subjected to fairy pranks. The mischievous Puck replaces Bottom’s head with that of a donkey. This sight frightens the other craftsmen so badly that they run home to Athens, leaving Bottom alone in the forest. Titania, who has been sleeping nearby, awakes and, through a spell cast by Oberon, falls madly in love with the donkey-headed Bottom. Later, when Titania and Bottom are released from the fairy spells, Bottom believes that he has simply had a wonderful dream and rushes off to find his friends.

Reunited once again, the Mechanicals hurry off to the palace and perform their play, Pyramus and Thisbe, for the Duke and Duchess. The Fairies When the play begins, Titania and Oberon, Queen and King of the Fairies, are feuding because Titania refuses to give Oberon a human child (a changeling boy) left in her care. Oberon, furious that Titania will not give him the boy, uses a magical flower to place a spell on her. The spell will make the Fairy Queen fall in love with the first creature that she sees when she wakes, no matter how hideous it might be. When she awakes, the first creature she sees is Nick Bottom, a mortal on whom Puck has placed a donkey’s head. She falls madly in love with the transformed man and orders her fairies to wait on her new love, feeding and entertaining him. Before releasing her from his spell, Oberon takes custody of the changeling boy. No longer fighting, Titania and Oberon then go with the rest of the fairies to celebrate Duke Theseus’ wedding day.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN Born: February 3, 1809, in Hamburg, Germany Died: November 4, 1847, in Leipzig, Germany Composed: Mendelssohn wrote the overture in August 1826, adding the balance of the incidental music in 1843. World premiere: Carl Loewe first conducted the Overture in Stettin in February 1827. The premiere of the complete incidental music took place on October 14, 1843, in Potsdam, Germany; the composer conducted. NJSO premiere: These performances are the NJSO premiere of the complete work. Duration: This performance will last approximately two hours. THE MUSIC Mendelssohn had read Shakespeare in German translation and revered him as “the most perfect poet who ever lived.” His original intent was to express the spirit of Shakespeare’s immortal comedy in a single concert movement. He was only 17 when he composed the flawless overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The rest of his incidental music did not follow until 1843, when he received a royal commission from the Prussian monarch to write music for a performance of the play at the New Palace Theater in Potsdam, outside Berlin. We think of incidental music as an extra, added element, perhaps even non-essential. Mendelssohn and his contemporaries had a different perspective. They viewed incidental music as something that could not only enhance the spoken text, but also intensify its meaning and emotional impact. Musical accompaniment to spoken text, known as melodrama in the 19th century, was quite popular. The vocal movements help to move the plot along, while the new instrumental excerpts facilitated scene changes. Mendelssohn skillfully expanded the existing overture’s spirit and themes in the new material. The miracle of his incidental music is that it recreates the magic of Shakespeare’s play and the 1826 overture, despite the years that had elapsed since the earlier composition. Mendelssohn’s incomparably light touch is absolutely perfect for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

We have the mysterious, elfin, fairy domain of Titania and Oberon, and their minions Puck, Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed. The boisterous good nature of Bottom, Flute, Snout and their cohorts also finds its place in the score, including the braying of the ass. Mendelssohn also addresses the ultimately worthy sentiments of the Athenian nobles, Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, and their rulers Theseus and Hippolyta. Magic and humor shine forth. Perhaps the most amazing aspect of Mendelssohn’s incidental music is how succinctly he delivers both the human and supernatural elements of Shakespeare’s original. We feel how separate are the worlds of the nobility, the lovers and the peasants from the magical kingdom of Oberon and Titania. Mendelssohn brings his own magic to this score, achieving the near-impossible: enhancing Shakespeare. Instrumentation: woodwinds and horns in pairs, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, triangle, soprano, mezzo-soprano, women’s chorus and strings.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream synopsis provided by The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

Question: Which composer , when just 17, wrote the Overture A Midsummer Night's Dream ?
Answer: MENDELSSOHN