门德尔松《第3交响曲,a小调为管弦乐队而作“苏格兰”》 《仲夏夜之梦 (E大调为管弦乐队而作的音乐会序曲)根据莎士比亚的“仲夏夜之梦”而作》 /雷莫特尔指挥 ,西南广播乐队巴登-巴登管弦乐团 维也纳大众歌剧院乐团
Felix Mendelssohn
,Edouard Van Remoortel
,Südwestfunkorchester Baden-Baden
,Wiener Volksopern orchester
GenreAlbum
Year1959
Introduction
Symphony No. 3 (Mendelssohn)
TheSymphony No. 3in A minor,Op.56, known as theScottish, is a symphony byFelix Mendelssohn, composed between 1829 and 1842.4
Composition
Mendelssohn was initially inspired to compose this symphony during his first visit to Britain in 1829.After a series of successful performances in London, Mendelssohn embarked on a walking tour of Scotland with his friend Karl Klingemann.On 30 July, Mendelssohn visited the ruins of Holyrood Chapel atHolyrood Palacein Edinburgh, where, as he related to his family in a letter, he received his initial inspiration for the piece:
"In the deep twilight we went today to the palace were Queen Mary lived and loved...The chapel below is now roofless. Grass and ivy thrive there and at the broken altar where Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything is ruined, decayed, and the clear heavens pour in. I think I have found there the beginning of my 'Scottish' Symphony."
Alongside this description, Mendelssohn enclosed in his letter a scrap of paper with the opening bars of what would become the symphony's opening theme.[6]A few days later Mendelssohn and his companion visited the western coast of Scotland and the island of Staffa, which in turn inspired the composer to startthe Hebrides.After completing the first version ofthe Hebrides, Mendelssohn continued to work on his initial sketches of what would become Symphony No. 3 while touring Italy.However, he struggled to make progress, and after 1831 set the piece aside.
It is not known exactly when Mendelssohn resumed work on the symphony (sketches suggest he may have returned to the first movement in the late 1830s) but he was certainly working in earnest on the piece by 1841 and completed the symphony in Berlin on 20 January 1842.Although it was the fifth and final of Mendelssohn's symphonies to be completed, it was the third to be published, and has subsequently been known as Symphony No. 3.Intriguingly, despite describing the work as his 'Scottish Symphony' to his family in 1829, by the time the work was published in 1842 Mendelssohn never publicly called attention to the symphony's Scottish inspiration, and it is debatable whether he intended the finished work to be considered 'Scottish'.Ever since the Scottish provenance became known following the composer's death, however, audiences have found it hard not to hear the piece as evoking the wild Romantic landscapes of the north - even if such picturesque associations have caused audiences to overlook the many other musical qualities of this symphony.
摘自:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No.3(Mendelssohn)
A Midsummer Night's Dream(Mendelssohn)
At two separate times,Felix Mendelssohncomposed music forWilliam Shakespeare's playA Midsummer Night's Dream(in GermanEin Sommernachtstraum). First in 1826, near the start of his career, he wrote aconcert overture(Op. 21). Later, in 1842, only a few years before his death, he wroteincidental music(Op. 61) for a production of the play, into which he incorporated the existing overture. The incidental music includes the famousWedding March.
Overture
The overture inE major, Op. 21, was written by Mendelssohn at 17 years and 6 months old (it was finished on 6 August 1826).Contemporary music scholarGeorge Grovecalled it "the greatest marvel of early maturity that the world has ever seen in music".It was written as a concert overture, not associated with any performance of the play. The overture was written after Mendelssohn had read a German translation of the play in 1826. The translation was byAugust Wilhelm Schlegel, with help fromLudwig Tieck. There was a family connection as well: Schlegel's brotherFriedrichmarried Felix Mendelssohn'sAunt Dorothea.
While aromanticpiece in atmosphere, the overture incorporates manyclassicalelements, being cast insonata formand shaped by regular phrasings and harmonic transitions. The piece is also noted for its striking instrumental effects, such as the emulation of scampering 'fairy feet' at the beginning and the braying of Bottom as an ass (effects which were influenced by the aesthetic ideas and suggestions of Mendelssohn's friend at the time,Adolf Bernhard Marx).Heinrich Eduard Jacob, in his biography of the composer, surmised that Mendelssohn had scribbled the opening chords after hearing an evening breeze rustle the leaves in the garden of the family's home.
The overture begins with four chords in the winds. Following the first theme in the parallel minor (E minor) representing the dancing fairies, a transition (the royal music of the court of Athens) leads to a second theme, that of the lovers. This is followed by the braying of Bottom with the "hee-hawing" being evoked by the strings. A final group of themes, reminiscent of craftsmen and hunting calls, brings theexpositionto a close. The fairies dominate most of thedevelopmentsection, while the Lover's theme is played in a minor key. The recapitulation begins with the same opening four chords in the winds, followed by the Fairies theme and the other section in the second theme, including Bottom's braying. The fairies return, and ultimately have the final word in thecoda, just as in Shakespeare's play. The overture ends once again with the same opening four chords by the winds.
The overture was premiered in Stettin (then inPrussia; nowSzczecin,Poland) on 20 February 1827,at a concert conducted byCarl Loewe. Mendelssohn had turned 18 just over two weeks earlier. He had to travel 80 miles through a raging snowstorm to get to the concert,which was his first public appearance. Loewe and Mendelssohn also appeared as soloists in Mendelssohn's Concerto in A-flat major for two pianos and orchestra, and Mendelssohn alone was the soloist forCarl Maria von Weber'sKonzertstück in F minor. After the intermission, he joined the first violins for a performance ofBeethoven'sNinth Symphony.
The first British performance of the overture was conducted by Mendelssohn himself, on 24 June 1829, at theArgyll Roomsin London, at a concert in benefit of the victims of the floods inSilesia, and played by an orchestra that had been assembled by Mendelssohn's friend SirGeorge Smart.
摘自:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Midsummer_Night%27s_Dream_(Mendelssohn)
