Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 - 1847)
Incidental Music "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Op.21
1. Scherzo
2. Nocturne
3. Wedding March

Like Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn was a highly gifted prodigy. Born in Hamburg, he made his debut as a pianist in Berlin aged nine. At 16, he took the musical world by storm with his String Octet and overture to A Midsummer Nights Dream. He made many visits to Britain, becoming a favourite of the young Queen Victoria.

It is often said that he "found fame too easily", and that his later music fails to recapture the joyous zest of his teenage works. Even if this is true for some of his later works, it is definitely not true of the incidental music to A Midsummer Nights Dream. The overture had been written in 1826, but the rest of the music was written in 1843, when he was 34, famous and well-established. It was commissioned by the King of Prussia for a performance of Shakespeare's play in Potsdam, just outside Berlin, where it was first performed on October 14th, 1843.

The music brilliantly recaptures the spirit of the overture and Shakespeare's play, being intelligent, subtle and witty. The scherzo is a light, filigree veil, through which the gentle braying of the donkey can occasionally be heard. The nocturne, with its lovely writing for horns, conjures up the warm magic air of the lovers in the woods by night, while the famous Wedding March, so rarely heard in its original form, celebrates the pleasingly fantastic happy outcome of the tale.