A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Jean Sibelius’s last major work was Tapiola, commissioned by Walter Damrosch for the New York Philharmonic. Its mysticism is revealed in a quatrain accompanying the score: ‘Wide-spread they stand, the Northland’s dusky forests, / Ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams; / Within them dwells the Forest’s mighty God, / And wood-sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets.’

Even as a teenager, Felix Mendelssohn made the fairies dance in his precocious overture to William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sixteen years later, he expanded it into an hour-long score of incidental music. The romantic entanglements of fairy-tale characters, royalty and peasants are accompanied by some of the best-loved examples of orchestral music, from the Wedding March to the Scherzo and Nocturne. Seela Sella, the queen of the theatre stage, excels as the narrator in this comedy.

Tonight’s conductor, James Sherlock, nods admiringly towards Sibelius in his new work. This symphonic poem, compiled from abandoned themes for Lemminkäinen, is filled with enigmatic harmonies, timeless themes and passionate tension. A precision strike on the hearts of Sibelius lovers!