Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night's Dream (incidental music)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Felix Mendelssohn
Label: Sony Classical
Magazine Review Date: 5/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 78
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: SK62826
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (A) Midsummer Night's Dream, Movement: Overture, Op. 21 |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Angelika Kirchschlager, Mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Ernst-Senff Women's Chorus Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Kenneth Branagh, Speaker Sylvia McNair, Soprano |
| (A) Midsummer Night's Dream, Movement: Scherzo (Entr'acte to Act 2) |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Angelika Kirchschlager, Mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Ernst-Senff Women's Chorus Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Kenneth Branagh, Speaker Sylvia McNair, Soprano |
| (A) Midsummer Night's Dream, Movement: Melodram: 'Over hill, over dale' and March of the 2) |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Angelika Kirchschlager, Mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Ernst-Senff Women's Chorus Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Kenneth Branagh, Speaker Sylvia McNair, Soprano |
| (A) Midsummer Night's Dream, Movement: Song with chorus: 'You spotted snakes' (Act 2) |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Angelika Kirchschlager, Mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Ernst-Senff Women's Chorus Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Kenneth Branagh, Speaker Sylvia McNair, Soprano |
| (A) Midsummer Night's Dream, Movement: The Speels (Melodram: Act 2) |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Angelika Kirchschlager, Mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Ernst-Senff Women's Chorus Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Kenneth Branagh, Speaker Sylvia McNair, Soprano |
| (A) Midsummer Night's Dream, Movement: Entr'acte/Intermezzo (Hermia seeks Lysander; Entrystics: Act 3) |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Angelika Kirchschlager, Mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Ernst-Senff Women's Chorus Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Kenneth Branagh, Speaker Sylvia McNair, Soprano |
| (A) Midsummer Night's Dream, Movement: Nocturne (Act 3) |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Angelika Kirchschlager, Mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Ernst-Senff Women's Chorus Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Kenneth Branagh, Speaker Sylvia McNair, Soprano |
| (A) Midsummer Night's Dream, Movement: Melodram: 'The Removal of the Spells' (Act 4) |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Angelika Kirchschlager, Mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Ernst-Senff Women's Chorus Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Kenneth Branagh, Speaker Sylvia McNair, Soprano |
| (A) Midsummer Night's Dream, Movement: Wedding March (Entr'acte to Act 5) |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Angelika Kirchschlager, Mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Ernst-Senff Women's Chorus Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Kenneth Branagh, Speaker Sylvia McNair, Soprano |
| (A) Midsummer Night's Dream, Movement: Finale: 'Through the house' (Act 5) |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Angelika Kirchschlager, Mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Ernst-Senff Women's Chorus Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Kenneth Branagh, Speaker Sylvia McNair, Soprano |
| Symphony No. 4, 'Italian' |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Claudio Abbado, Conductor Felix Mendelssohn, Composer |
Author: Edward Greenfield
It makes an attractive package having Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream music, dramatically presented (with Kenneth Branagh taking every role from Titania to Puck), and then very generously coupled with Mendelssohn’s most popular symphony. Sony have managed to squeeze in 50 minutes of the Midsummer Night’s Dream music, which means that the only omissions are the fragmentary reprise of the “Wedding March” and the two little comic pieces, “Bergomask” and “Funeral March”, intended for the Rude Mechanicals’ Pyramus and Thisbe episodes. Some may resist Branagh’s style – burring his ‘r’s for a Mummerset Puck, coming near to an Olivier imitation in Oberon’s final speech – but in his versatility he is very persuasive. Having speech over music in melodrama certainly makes sense of the more fragmentary passages of the score in a way they do not, for example, in Andre Previn’s EMI presentation of the music down to the last note.
Abbado’s performances are a delight, fresh and transparent in the fairy music, with generally fast speeds made exhilarating, never breathless. The chorus are atmospherically balanced, with the two excellent soloists, Sylvia McNair and Angelika Kirchschlager, set more forwardly. The recording, made live in the Philharmonie in Berlin, is rather more vivid, a degree less recessed than in the symphony, where the orchestra are placed at a slight distance, an effect one gets used to.
In the Italian Symphony Abbado’s reading has changed little since his more recent LSO version of 1985, though here and there, as in the third movement, the phrasing is this time a little more moulded. Most importantly, he still keeps to the more flowing speed for the second movement Andante, which marked the most significant difference between that and his first LSO recording of 1961, now available on a bargain Belart disc. By any reckoning he remains one of the most persuasive interpreters of this delectable work.'
Abbado’s performances are a delight, fresh and transparent in the fairy music, with generally fast speeds made exhilarating, never breathless. The chorus are atmospherically balanced, with the two excellent soloists, Sylvia McNair and Angelika Kirchschlager, set more forwardly. The recording, made live in the Philharmonie in Berlin, is rather more vivid, a degree less recessed than in the symphony, where the orchestra are placed at a slight distance, an effect one gets used to.
In the Italian Symphony Abbado’s reading has changed little since his more recent LSO version of 1985, though here and there, as in the third movement, the phrasing is this time a little more moulded. Most importantly, he still keeps to the more flowing speed for the second movement Andante, which marked the most significant difference between that and his first LSO recording of 1961, now available on a bargain Belart disc. By any reckoning he remains one of the most persuasive interpreters of this delectable work.'
Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night's Dream (incidental music)
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.