Most of the music (incidental) Felix Mendelssohn composed for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream I have not heard. But if one has enjoyed the Scherzo and the ever-famous “Wedding March”, which I have heard, even more, surely, will he or she relish the Overture the German master wrote for the play–and wrote when he was only seventeen.
It is extraordinary music. Eleven minutes long, it is all youthful elan as it darts and gallops. Now comic, now majestic and perfect in structure, this, and offering a most gratifying return to theme. I have heard the Berlin Philharmonic performance, on CD, many times.
Cover of Felix Mendelssohn
