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FELIX MENDELSSOHN Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21 BORN: February 3, 1809, in Hamburg DIED: November 4, 1847, in Leipzig WORK COMPOSED: 1826 WORLD PREMIERE: February 20, 1827, in the German (now Polish) city of Stettin. Carl Loewe, an accomplished composer of songs and other works, conducted. Felix Mendelssohn was only 17 when he conceived the idea of a concert overture to Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In July 1826, he wrote to his sister, who was traveling: “I’ve gotten into the habit of composing in our garden. ... Today or tomorrow I shall go there to dream A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” This picture of Mendelssohn composing dreamily in the garden of his family’s house suggests composition of this work as a fairly effortless matter, but such was not the case. Mendelssohn had completed a substantial portion of the score when he became dissatisfied and began over again. We can be thankful that he lavished such care on his overture. It is one the composer’s most appealing works and surely the most accomplished music ever produced by an adolescent, Mozart and Strauss not excepted. Mendelssohn’s composition follows the usual form of a concert overture but introduces unmistakable pictorial elements. The composer reduces the customary slow introduction of overture form to four magical chords, which seem to cast a spell and transport us to that enchanted forest where Oberon and Titania rule. Each of the three themes that follow corresponds loosely to one of the three types of characters in the play. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR: The light and rapid figures that flow out of the opening harmonies conjure represent Shakespeare’s fairies rushing through the forest, while the more warmly romantic second melody suggests the mortal lovers lost in the wood. Finally, the humorous closing theme represents the rustic tradesmen; we even hear the braying of the hapless Bottom after he has been given the head of a donkey. This subject concludes with the horn calls of Duke Theseus’ hunting party. Mendelssohn develops these ideas with keen imagination and a gossamer touch, and the overture closes with a reprise of the magic chords of the opening measures. © 2016 Paul Schiavo