In the Overture and Incidental Music to William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Felix Mendelssohn brings the illustrious company of elves, lovers’ passions and the solitude of the forest or a moonlit night to musical life. It became a model for other literary reflections in music like Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony.
The Manfred’s four movements – or ‘images’, as the composer himself named them – capture the world-weariness of George Byron’s Manfred: A Dramatic Poem in music.
Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra awaken the musical imagery of both works in a colourful, fresh and enchanting performance.
Here is Riccardo Chailly, directing the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night’s Dream:
