PASP015:
Scherzo from Midsummer Night's Dream - Mendelssohn (arr. Rachmaninoff)
MP3
price
Benno
Moiseiwitsch, pianoforte
Recorded
in 1939, released as HMV C.3209
Matrix
number: 2EA.7664
First take used
Download ID: 223716
(Duration
4'05")
Play
30s sample:
Introduction:
Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany on 3rd February, 1809 into
a distinguished and afflluent family of bankers, intellectuals and artists.
A child prodigy, he produced his first composition in 1820; a constant
stream of work continued throughout his relatively short life - he died
in Leipzig on 4th November, 1847 at the age of just 38. These notes, which
accompany Pristine Audio's Mendelssohn Edition, released to mark the 160th
anniversary of his oratio Elijah,
our first award-winning release for Divine Art, follow Mendelssohn's life
through eight compositions newly remastered for August 2006.
The
Mendelssohn Trail - Part 6 of 8
Music composed 1842
The year
1842 proved to be quite significant for Mendelssohn, particularly with
respect to royal appointments. In the spring of that year he had been
appointed Kapellmeister to the King of Saxony, a post he had to
resign just a few months later following negotiations with the King of
Prussia, Frederick William IV, in Berlin. The newly crowned King was eager
to found a new Academy of the Arts in the city, and had previously offered
the post to Mendelssohn at the end of 1840. However with little clarification
as to the exact duties required of him, the tempting salary of 3000 thaler
a year and the prospect of living closer to the rest of his family seemed
like it might never materialise.
Finally,
after much tedious correspondence with officials, Mendelssohn decided
to take matters in hand and arranged an audience with the King, planning
to tend his resignation. Fortunately here things were greatly clarified
- for 1500 thaler a year he was relatively free to live and travel where
he liked, unless specifically required by the King to be in Berlin, pending
the formation of fixed bodies of singers and performers. These negotiations
appear to have required a good deal of skill and tact on the composer's
part, and relations between the two continued to be friendly.
One of
the fruits of this arrangement was a commission from the King of Prussia
for music for A Midsummer Night's Dream from which this Scherzo
is taken. Mendelssohn had written a highly successful overture on the
same theme in 1826, at the height of his inspiration, and when he returned
to compose the rest some 17 years later, he was able to show in detail
how the themes of that original overture were appropriate to the various
elements of the play.
This particular
recording finds the Scherzo in piano solo form, in an arrangement made
by Rachmaninoff.
The
Mendelssohn Trail - on to part
7
Back to start
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with links to website pages
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