Felix Mendelssohn - A Midsummer Night's Dream (Jordi Savall)

Information

Composer: Felix Mendelssohn

• A Midsummer Night's Dream

La Capella Nacional de Catalunya

Le Concert des Nations

Jordi Savall, conductor

Date: 2024

Label: Alia Vox

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On 7th July, 1826, the 17-year-old Mendelssohn, fascinated by Shakespeare’s work, embarked on a project which appealed to his taste for magical fairy themes. On 6th August, in the record time of one month, he completed his extraordinary Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a few months later, in November, he played it with his sister Fanny to a spellbound gathering of friends, including the pianist and composer Ignaz Moscheles.

The miraculous opening chords create an instant enchantment which is sustained throughout the rest of the overture and leads us into the realm of the fairies. According to Robert Schumann, this “bloom of youth” seems to spring from a profound understanding of the poetic and emotional dimension of Shakespeare’s fabulous comedy. But perhaps it is also the fact that the young Mendelssohn, propelled too early into adulthood, delighted in reconnecting with the spirit of his childhood, building on his extraordinary capacity to imagine and create a kind of symphonic poem –the first of its genre– which, thanks to its inspiration and extraordinary orchestration, immerses us in the magical atmosphere of an enchanted night and the heady atmosphere enfolding the characters in the play. Hector Berlioz, who was well versed in the matter affirmed that he “had never heard anything more Shakespearean.”

High Resolution 24-bit / 96 kHz