Premieres Revisited: Mendelssohn in Potsdam

Mendelssohn's Sommernachtstraum is performed in Potsdam as part of a new thrilling series that connects musical compositions and their premiere location.

This episode marks the start of a captivating series: compositions at their world premiere venues. Mendelssohn composed his famous Sommernachtstraum (Midsummer Night's Dream) as a teenager, but was not able to incorporate it into the accompaniment to Shakespeare's fantastic comedy until 16 years later. The incidental music was commissioned by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia and is performed in this special performance at the Theater des Neuen Palais in Potsdam, exactly where the premiere took place in October 1843. Alongside the Kammerakademie Potsdam and its chief conductor Antonella Manacorda, soloists Jeanine De Bique and Christiane Karg, who also appear in Berlioz's exquisite Les nuits d'été, a work created just two years before Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream.

Genre Concert
Composer F. Mendelssohn, H. Berlioz
Orchestra / Band Kammerakademie Potsdam
Soloist Christiane Karg, Jeanine De Bique
Conductor Antonello Manacorda
Recording location Theater des Neuen Palais, Potsdam
Production year 2024
Duration approx. 73 mins (long), approx. 45 mins (short)
Producer Heliodor in co-production with ZDF and ARTE
Video format 4K