July 29, 2010

  • Review: Midsummer Night's Dream

    Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream—Incidental Music, Op. 61
    Varsity Voices, Nota Bene, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/James Judd
    Naxos 8.570794
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Between Beethoven and Brahms there seems to be a vast disappearance of art music.  When we think of masterpieces of music there is oddly very few orchestral works that have stood the same litmus test, or are performed with as great a frequency, as those which were written post-1870.  However, as composers experimented in the shadow of Beethoven, there were some amazing works and among them are those of the precocious Felix Mendelssohn.  Mendelssohn’s music continues to have a charm that appeals to listeners with its Mozart-ean wit and Classical clarity coupled with a gift of melodic writing.  He also dabbled a bit in incorporating folk music elements in his works which make his symphonies engaging pieces. 

    Most people, without knowing it, know a bit of Mendelssohn’s music.  One of his most played works, the “Wedding March,” comes from the set of incidental pieces which he wrote to accompany performances of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for an 1841 production.  At the age of 17, Mendelssohn composed one of his most delightful overtures inspired by this same play.  The Op. 21overture appears in this recording as well—it being connected to the 1841 production through the use of some of its themes in the incidental music.  The overture is a marvel of woodwind writing and the sort of fairy-light touch that the composer was so good at creating.  Judd’s performance here allows the slower passages to sing a bit and he plays up the dramatic sense of the work more rather than treating it as a quick concert showpiece.  This lends the final bars a bit more tension before the return of those opening magical chords close the work off.

    What makes this new Naxos disc interesting is that it has the play very much in its mind.  The booklet playlist even notes when the musical pieces were used after specific acts, scenes, or lines.  And a good portion of the disc is devoted to playing out of some of these scenes.  The melodrama music intended to be played with the text is played here as it would have in the 19th century thus wonderfully recreating a period production and helping to discover the way a musical melodrama would work.  The result is that some tracks feature the musical piece with dialogue texts interspersed as they would have been at the time. 

    Judd’s performance here is really spot on.  The woodwind playing is light and is crystal clear in its accents and musical shaping.  The orchestra brings an energy to the music that allows us to appreciate how these pieces worked within the play itself.  The purely instrumental sections are delightful.  The “Scherzo” bubbles along with great energy with the string accents also performed with a lightness that makes the music feel more dancelike than its often more heavy-handed interpretations.  “Ye Spotted Snakes” is performed here by Jenny Wollerman and Pepe Becker at quite a quick tempo and yet there is such beauty in their interpretation.  Here the gorgeous lyric melody soars above the bubbling fairy music underneath.  The performances are dramatically interpreted and feel more appropriate to the context rather than some operatic duet. 

    Peter Maag’s classic London/Decca recording was my introduction to the complete incidental music here and it is still a fine yard stick.  Judd’s recording manages to capture all the magic and drama of Mendelssohn’s purely instrumental music so well perhaps because he is able to conceive his interpretation in its melodrama segments as well.  The New Zealand Symphony might be a bit large for a theater orchestra, but Mendelssohn’s textures are so well wrought that one just marvels in the virtuosity of the orchestra.  The performance of the “Nocturne” is simply gorgeous.

    Before film, the melodrama and incidental music were the ways composers could explore writing against scenarios outside of an operatic context.  Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a superb example of the form that features some of the composer’s finest music.  The release is a wonderful way to introduce students to this play whole also introducing the concept of 19th century melodrama.  The acting during the dialogue tracks will have you laughing as well with one wishing only that the whole play would be available to hear.  Most wonderful is the central Act where all are allowed to make themselves asses—so to speak.  Highly recommended!