Felix Mendelssohn is associated with one brilliant score of incidental music for the theatre – A Midsummer Night’s Dream – but in fact he composed scores for no less than 15 stage works. The most significant of them, including the three works in this set, date from the period when he 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’s tragedy Antigone by its strong dramatic sense and its universal themes, particularly Antigone’s pathos and heroism. In addition to setting several of the choruses, he composed interludes and background music for speeches and dialogues. His highly effective score is intensely noble and romantic yet also sensitive to the verse.

His music for Sophocles’s Oedipus at Colonus moves further away from Athenian dramatic form, with accompanied recitative, solos and duets for the principal characters, and is more elaborate. It has a tragic intensity not often heard in his music.

His score of incidental music for Racine’s religious drama Athalie is typical of the composer’s style – characterised by flowing, sustained melodic invention, colourful orchestration and imaginative scoring for the voices. It displays the composer at the height of his powers, both as a musical dramatist and an orchestral tone-poet.

Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus are performed by the Radio Symphony Orchester, Berlin, conducted by Stefan Soltesz, with the Berliner Rundfunkchor and Männerchor ’Carl Maria von Weber’.

Athalia is performed by Das Neue Orchester, conducted by Christoph Spering. The major roles for bass in both Sophocles’ dramas are sung by René Pape. The role of Antigone is taken by Therese Hämer and Creon is played by Klaus Piontek. Otto Sander takes the role of Oedipus.

Contents:
CD 1
Antigone, Incidental music Op.55 to Sophocles’s tragedy (1841) in a translation by Johann Jakob Donner
1. Overture: Andante maestoso – Allegro assai
2. Strahl des Helios, schönstes Licht (Chorus/Bass)
3. Vieles gewaltiges lebt (Chorus/Witness/Leader)
4. Ihr Seligen, deren Geschick nie Kosten Unheil! (Chorus/Bass)
5. O Eros, Allsieger im Kampf! (Soloists/Chorus/Antigone)
6. Noch toset des Sturmes Gewalt rastlos (Leader/Creon/Antigone/Chorus)
7. Vielnamiger! Wonn’ und Stolz der Kadmosjungfrau (Chorus and soloists)
8. Her kommt er ja selbst (Chorus, Creon and Servant)

CD 2
Oedipus at Colonus, Incidental music Op.93 to Sophocles’s tragedy (1845)
1. O Schau! Er entfloh! (Chorus/Bass/Oedipus/Antigone)
2. Grausam ist es, O freund (Chorus/Oedipus)
3. Zur rossprangenden Flur, O Freund (Chorus)
4. Von deinen Töchtern (Creon/Antigone/Oedipus/Leader/Chorus)
5. Ach, wär ich, wo bald die Schaar der Feinde (Chorus)
6. Wer ein längeres Lebenstheil (Chorus)
7. Auf uns bricht von dem blinden Greis (Chorus/Oedipus/Antigone)
8. Er ist verstattet, dich, mächtige Göttin (Soloists/Chorus)
9. Weh uns! Überall und ewig müssen wir klagen (Antigone/Ismene/Theseus/Chorus)

CD 3
Athalia, Incidental music Op.74 to Racine’s play (1845), in a translation by Ernst Raupach, with additional text by Eduard Devrient
1. Overture: Maestoso con moto – Allegro molto
2. Monologue Ein Vorgang ist’s aus heiligen Geschichten
3. Herr, durch die ganze Welt (Soloists/Chorus)
4. Monologue Die reinen Herzens sind
5. Oh seht, welch ein Stern (Soloists/Chorus)
6. Monologue Verschwunden aber ist nicht die Gefahr
7. Lasst uns dem heil’gen Wort (Soloists/Chorus)
8. Ist es Glück, ist es Leid? (Soloists/Chorus)
9. Monologue Dem Frieden eine Stätte zu bereiten
10. War-March of the Priests: Allegro vivace
11. Monologue Hebt euren Augen auf, ihr Söhne Levi
12. So geht, so geht, ihr Kinder Aarons, geht (Soloists/Chorus)
13. Monologue Herein dringt jetzt
14. Ja, durch die ganze Welt (Soloists/Chorus)