Mendelssohn: A Midsummer

Otto Klemperer was very much a man of the theatre. “Here, opera and drama were truly united”, he said of his time at Berlin’s Kroll Theatre, a progressive and influential force in the heady years of the Weimar Republic. He was also a man with a sharp sense of humour: this performance of Mendelssohn’s incidental music to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream both glows with enchantment and sparkles with wit.

Following a series of acclaimed recordings of 19th-century music including complete cycles of the symphonies by Schubert and Schumann, Thomas Dausgaard and his Swedish Chamber Orchestra turn to Felix Mendelssohn.

Continuing his award-winning cycle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner leads the London Symphony Orchestra, his singers and actors through a novel performance of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: this version—performed as part of the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death—makes some cuts to the original movements, in Gardiner's words, ‘removing all of the music relating to the Mechanicals and thus focusing on the world of the fairies and the human lovers.’

The overture in E major, Op. 21, was written by Mendelssohn at 17 years and 6 months old (it was finished on 6 August 1826).

Klemperer wurde im schlesischen Breslau als zweites von drei Kindern der Eltern Nathan und Ida Klemperer geboren.

George Szell, originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. Considered one of the twentieth century's greatest conductors, he was music director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and recorded a standard classical repertoire in Cleveland, and with other orchestras.

Otto Klemperer was very much a man of the theatre. “Here, opera and drama were truly united,” he said of his time at Berlin’s Kroll Theatre, a progressive and influential force in the heady years of the Weimar Republic. He was also a man with a sharp sense of humour: this performance of Mendelssohn’s incidental music to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream both glows with enchantment and sparkles with wit.

Eugene Ormandy (born Jenő Blau; November 18, 1899 – March 12, 1985) was a Hungarian-born American conductor and violinist, best known for his association with the Philadelphia Orchestra, as its music director.

Herrlich klar und dynamisch! Der Komponist schuf mit seiner Musik zu William Shakespeares bunter Komödie voller Feen, Elfen und Kobolde ist die wohl populärste Vertonung des 'Sommernachtstraums'. Werke wie der wunderbare 'Hochzeitsmarsch' zählen bis heute zu den berühmtesten der Musikgeschichte. Wunderbar intoniert vom Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, dem Münchener Kammerorchester unter dem Dirigat von Alexander Liebreich.

"I don't think Mendelssohn gets the attention he deserves," said Paavo Järvi at the start of the 2020-2021 season. Faced with this observation, he undertook to record a complete cycle of Mendelssohn's orchestral works with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra for his second season as Music Director. On the programme are the composer's five symphonies, including the second, known as 'Lobgesang', half-symphony, half-cantata, with the participation of the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, tenor Patrick Grahl and sopranos Chen Reiss and Marie Henriette Reinhold. Finally, A Midsummer Night's Dream , based on Shakespeare's play, the overture to which Mendelssohn composed when he was just 17, concludes this very fine cycle.