Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream

©

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)
Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, arranged as a duet for two pianists (opus 21)
July 10, [1829?]
Folger MS V.a.372

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy composed his famous overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream when he was just seventeen years old and living in Berlin with his parents. He first wrote the overture as a piano duet, which he played with his sister Fanny in November 1826. The overture publically premiered the following year, after being arranged for orchestral performance. This copy of the piano version in his own hand is thought to have been made during his first trip to England in 1829. Mendelssohn was one of the most popular composers in England in the nineteenth century, visiting the country ten times in his short lifetime.

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This page updated June 27, 2002