Otto Klemperer was very much a man of the theatre. “Here, opera and drama were truly united,” he said of his time at Berlin’s Kroll Theatre, a progressive and influential force in the heady years of the Weimar Republic. He was also a man with a sharp sense of humour: this performance of Mendelssohn’s incidental music to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream both glows with enchantment and sparkles with wit.

CD 1
01 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Incidental Music: Overture, Op. 21  - Philharmonia Orchestra
02 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Incidental Music: No.1 Scherzo  - Philharmonia Orchestra
03 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Incidental Music: No. 2a March of the Fairies  - Philharmonia Orchestra
04 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Incidental Music: No. 3 "Ye spotted snakes  - Philharmonia Orchestra
05 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Incidental Music: No. 5 Intermezzo  - Philharmonia Orchestra
06 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Incidental Music: No. 7 Nocturne  - Philharmonia Orchestra
07 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Incidental Music: No. 9 Wedding March  - Philharmonia Orchestra
08 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Incidental Music: No. 10a Funeral March  - Philharmonia Orchestra
09 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Incidental Music: No. 11 Dance of the Clowns  - Philharmonia Orchestra
10 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Incidental Music: Finale. "Through the House"  - Philharmonia Orchestra