Here’s another chance to obtain André Previn’s fine recording of Mendelssohn’s complete A Midsummer Night’s Dream incidental music. This atmospheric performance, taped at London’s Kingsway Hall in October 1976, manages to bring the narrative elements of the score into clear relief thanks to Previn’s sensitive handling. Although this rendition doesn’t completely avoid the slightly disjoined feeling you get with most accounts, it’s a highly satisfying re-enactment of those parts of the Shakespeare comedy Mendelssohn chose to set.
From the beginning the recording offers the benefits of fine engineering. The violins’ gossamer-like first entry in the overture (Previn sets the magical atmosphere beautifully with the misty wind chords at the start) is breathtakingly soft, yet every strand is plainly audible. Later, the arrival of the first tutti (fortissimo) shows the huge dynamic range of this Kingsway Hall production to advantage. Previn relished Mendelssohn’s evocation of Shakespeare’s fantastical world, to judge by the wealth of detail he packs into the overture alone. Note how the braying donkey effects are humorously painted by the winds and how distinctively the snorting contra bassoon part comes through. The coda, with its return of the opening wind chords, is sublimely done. Tempos are brisk and alert for the main allegro, slightly quicker than Kurt Masur with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra on Teldec.
Previn’s LSO gives an impeccable reading of the Scherzo, though here you might miss the added lightness of touch Masur occasionally provides. However, the Nocturne’s famous horn solo is much better played by the un-named LSO soloist (Masur’s player has a slightly woolly, more eastern-European sound, with a hint of vibrato). Both conductors give impressive accounts of the Wedding March, though EMI’s more reverberant recording gives Previn’s an extra magnificence, aided by more forwardly placed trumpets and (as already mentioned) a wider dynamic range. In the vocal numbers, the Finchley Childrens’ Music Group provides a lighter, floatier sonority (ideal for this work) than the adult voices of the Leipzig Radio Chorus for Masur. Previn uses English texts (Masur uses German), and his two soloists, Lilian Watson and Delia Wallis, deliver them with good diction and clarity. Complete recordings of this score aren’t very common, and EMI’s bargain reissue is worth having, especially if until now you’ve made do with only the familiar overture, scherzo, and nocturne.
