MENDELSSOHN: Midsummer Night's Dream, Overtures [CD de audio] Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Walter Weller, Gewandhausorches

This double CD features some of the most charming and evocative orchestral pages created by the brilliant mind of Felix Mendelssohn. In particular, the stage music written for William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream (presented in the complete version, with soprano, mezzo-soprano and chorus passages) has some of the most ethereal, fairy-like and miraculous pages never written by Mendelssohn, such as the Scherzo, a prodigy of lightness and elegance in which the mysterious shadows of the elves seem to hide, and the Wedding March, which has become the most used theme to accompany the brides' entrance to the church. The second disc contains four famous overtures, among them the well-known Grotta di Fingal (also known as Le Ebridi) and Calma di Mare e Viaggio Tranquillo. These works are presented to us in the splendid performance of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Walter Weller and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (orchestra founded by Mendelssohn himself) conducted by Kurt Masur. Alison Hagley, soprano; Louise Winter, mezzo-soprano; Junior Chorus, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Walter Weller, conductor; Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.