Musique De Scène [CD de audio] Berliner Rundfunkchor, Felix Mendelssohn and Stefan Soltesz

Felix Mendelssohn is associated with a brilliant score of incidental music for the theater A Midsummer Nights Dream, but in fact he composed scores for no less than 15 plays. The most significant of them, including the three works in this set, date from the period when it was employed by King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who was strongly attracted to the spirit of Romanticism and the culture of Greek antiquity. Mendelssohn was drawn to Sophocles' tragedy Antigone for its strong dramatic sense and universal themes, particularly the pathos and heroism of Antigone. In addition to establishing several of the choruses, he composed interludes and background music for speeches and dialogues. Its highly effective score is intensely noble and romantic, but also sensitive to verse. His music for Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus at Colonus departs even further from the Athenian dramatic form, with accompanied recitative, solos and duets for the main characters, and is more elaborate. It has a tragic intensity that is not often heard in his music. His score of incidental music for Racine's religious work Athalie is typical of the composer's style, characterized by fluid and uninterrupted melodic invention, colorful orchestration, and imaginative vocal scoring. It shows the composer at the peak of his powers as both a musical dramatist and an orchestral poet.