Description
On two separate occasions Mendelssohn was inspired to compose music based on Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream: he wrote a Concert Overture in 1826 at the age of 17, and then in 1842 he wrote a set of pieces (Op. 61) as incidental music for a production of the play, into which he incorporated his overture. Of the fourteen numbers, some are vocal and some purely instrumental. The most well-known are a Scherzo, the Wedding March and this Nocturne, which re-appears when the mortal lovers fall asleep in the production. With its original scoring of horns and bassoons with a gentle orchestral backdrop, here we have one of the most sublimely peaceful interludes ever to be composed in the orchestral repertoire.
Arranged for bassoon quartet by Frances Jones.
