"Though everything
else may appear shallow and repulsive,
even the smallest task in music is so
absorbing, and carries us so far away
from town, country, earth and all worldly
things, that it is truly a blessed gift
of God." Mendelssohn
This is a German language
release in an edition including narratives,
recited and sung in German with full
texts. There is, however, a highly informative
English essay provided in the annotation,
but no English translation of the German
text.
Mendelssohn, sometimes
known as the ‘Classical Romantic’, was
revered in his lifetime as one of the
best-loved composers of the 19th century,
particularly in Victorian England. Since
the mid-nineteenth century Mendelssohn
has become considerably less well regarded.
Most scholars agree that the neglect
of Mendelssohn’s music originated as
a result of Richard Wagner’s 1850 pamphlet
entitled ‘Judaism in Music’.
Furthermore, following the outbreak
of the First World War a forceful and
intensely hostile reaction against all
things German and Victorian prevailed
in Britain and also in many other countries.
Consequently works by German composers,
such as, Mendelssohn that had once been
perennial favourites of the national
orchestras and provincial choral societies
were ignored. The personal attacks on
Mendelssohn for his Judaism were continued
into the 1930s with the advent of the
German National Socialists who outlawed
his compositions. Even seventy years
later it is apparent that the bulk of
Mendelssohn’s compositions, as a result
of the complete ban made by the Nazi
Party, have struggled to regain their
hold in the repertoire.
In Britain it has been
only a handful of compositions that
have kept Mendelssohn’s name in the
spotlight. Acknowledged masterworks
such as the Octet for Strings
(1825), the Overture to a Midsummer
Nights Dream (1826), the Scottish
and Italian Symphonies, The
Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave)
Overture and the Violin Concerto
(1844) are the most likely to be
encountered on record or in concert
performance. Of the composer’s substantial
choral output only the oratorio Elijah
and to a lesser extent St.
Paul have maintained their international
popularity with choral societies. In
recent decades the tide is turning in
Mendelssohn’s favour and his reputation
and regard are rapidly increasing. Only
last year I received on my desk as many
as four new versions of the complete
Mendelssohn String Quartets for
review; a situation that would have
been unheard of several years ago. It
is recordings such as this Capriccio
release that are helping to redress
the balance and assisting to restore
Mendelssohn’s music to the repertoire.
Musicologist Edwin
Evans described how Mendelssohn was
born into the Romantic era, but his
breeding of aristocratic fastidiousness
made him averse to participation in
the Romantic excesses of his time, even
when writing for the symphony orchestra.
Mendelssohn was perfectly comfortable
composing in the old world of Classical
form but that temperament and refinement
he infused with a new lyricism. Undoubtedly
it was a significant disadvantage for
Mendelssohn to have been born nearly
forty years after his fellow countryman
Beethoven. This placed Mendelssohn very
much in the shadow of the new and progressive
musical horizons that Beethoven had
created. For many years it became fashionable
to disparage Mendelssohn on account
of his gentle Romanticism that to later
generations appeared as mere sentimentality.
Subsequently a reassessment has resulted
from the reaction against later excesses.
Steadily Mendelssohn is becoming rehabilitated,
not for his mellow Romanticism, but
for his almost Classical formal elegance.
It is easy to understand
why Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny
were drawn to A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. In addition to Ludwig Tieck’s
German translation of the play they
studied August Wilhelm Schlegel’s translation;
Schlegel was a relation of Mendelssohn
by marriage. In contrast to the Shakespearian
tragedies, the comedy A Midsummer
Night’s Dream is free from serious
political dimensions. Mendelssohn with
his innate Romantic yearning for fairytale
enchantment was captivated by the dreamlike
nocturnal magic that unfolds in a moonlit
forest peopled by fairies, elves, spirits
and clowns; a childlike fantasy world
where everything is subject to the caprices
of nature.
So attracted was Mendelssohn
that in homage he wrote his substantial
Concert Overture, to A Midsummer
Night’s Dream for two pianos in
1826. This he later orchestrated as
his Op. 21. The miracle of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream Overture is that such
a perfect realisation of the play could
have been composed when he was only
seventeen. Seventeen years after writing
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture,
Mendelssohn was commissioned by
King Frederick William of Prussia, for
a Potsdam production of the play, to
add to the Overture twelve short
movements to serve as incidental music.
The background to the
texts used for this Capriccio recording
is a convoluted one. Shakespeare’s works
had enjoyed a great popularity in Germany
since the middle of the18th century,
thanks to Christoph Wieland’s German
translations of 1762-66. The later German
translations by Johann Eschenburg inspired
August Wilhelm Schlegel to undertake
his own translations of Shakespeare’s
texts. Mendelssohn originally wrote
the score to accompany theatrical performances
of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
in Schlegel’s translation. Very soon
after the performances need was felt
for a concert version with spoken parts.
A narrator relates the course of the
action in shortened form. These were
written by Oskar Wolff in 1851. The
edition presented here by Capriccio
adheres to Oskar Wolff’s basic concept
of his concert version. The characters
speak Shakespeare’s original lines in
Schlegel’s translation, but Wolff’s
narratives are not used; instead, for
this recording Renato Grüning and
Thomas Leutzbach have written new extended
narratives for male and female speaker
in a style that matches Schlegel’s poetic
diction.
The conductor Helmuth
Froschauer and his WDR Radio Orchestra
of Cologne provide an affectionate performance
of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Overture that doesn’t quite have
that special magical ingredient offered
by the very best versions. For this
you need to turn to Peter Maag and the
LSO on Decca. Froschauer is feather-light
in the Scherzo and in the Fairy’s
March his woodwind impress in the
nocturnal magic. In You Spotted Snakes
with Double Tongues (track 6) Anke
Hoffmann and Mechthild Georg are satisfying
and in the Intermezzo the Cologne
Orchestra offer an interpretation convincingly
evocative of the moonlit glade. I enjoyed
the excellent performance of the famous
Nocturne episode, where
the prominent horn soloist displays
an appealing timbre. The brass are splendid
in the world famous Wedding March
without providing Maag’s assurance and
weight. In the Finale the wonderful
Dance of the Clowns is obscured
by a layer of narration and then a passage
for the chorus which is disappointing
when compared to Maag-Decca disc
which extracted the music and where
it is played in finest form. The sound
quality from the Capriccio engineers,
although acceptable, can sometimes feel
rather distant and muffled.
This Capriccio release
has to compete with the finest available
recordings of the complete version the
best of which is the beautiful performance
from Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony
Orchestra and Tanglewood Festival Choir
on Deutsche Grammophon 439 897-2. Ozawa’s
DG disc has the advantage of Dame Judy
Dench providing the speaking part. There
is also a large body of support for
the account from André Previn
and the London Symphony Orchestra and
Finchley Children’s Music Group on EMI
747163-2 or on EMI Encore 5 74981-2.
It is worth noting that Previn’s version
on EMI is without the spoken parts.
Those wanting a recording
of the A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Concert Overture, Op. 21
together with well chosen excerpts from
the Incidental Music, Op. 61,
without spoken narratives, need not
hesitate with the 1957 Kingsway Hall,
London account from Peter Maag and the
London Symphony Orchestra on Decca Legends
289 466 990-2. Maag may be an unfamiliar
name to some but this Mendelssohn specialist
is on excellent form with sparkling
playing.
Michael Cookson
CD 1
1. A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture,
Op. 21 (1826) [10:42]
2. Der Dichter Führt Uns Nach Athen
[08:16]
3. Urplötzlich Aber Greifen Fremde
Kräfte [04:54]
4. He, Geist! Wo Geht Die Reise Hin?
[03:31]
5. Schlimm Treffen Wir Bei Mondlicht
[11:27]
6. Kommt! Ein Ringel, -Ein Feensang!
[04:09]
7. Was Du Wirst Erwachend Sehn [07:28]
8. Intermezzo [03:06]
9. Sind Wir Alle Beisammen? [18:58]
CD 2
1. Pflegt Spott Und Hohn In Tränen
Sich Zu Kleiden? [15:31]
2. Notturno [05:48]
3. Komm, Lass Uns Hier Auf Blumenbetten
Kosen! [07:21]
4. Hochzeitsmarsch [04:23]
5. Wenn Mein Stichwort Komt, Ruft Mich
[15:04]
6. Wie Kommt's, Dass Der Mondschein
Weggegangen Ist [02:29]
7. Die Mitternacht Rief Zwölf Mit
Ehrner Zunge [01:31]
8. Jetzt Beheult Der Wolf Den Mond [01:54]
9. Bei Des Feuers Mattem Flimmern [05:17]
for
details
WDR Radio Orchestra and Choir, Cologne/Helmuth
Froschauer 
