Mendelssohn: Incidental Music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61

Bartók: Two Portraits, Op. 5

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 1 played by: Zenghyi Huang, Winner of the 2023 Ann & Charles Eisemann International Young Artists Competition

The mischief, mythical fairies and innocent lovers that Shakespeare brought to life in his A Midsummer Night’s Dream are magically portrayed through Mendelssohn’s “incidental” music. Bartók’s Two Portraits date from a tempestuous and formative two-year period in his mid-twenties when, youthfully in love but also making the folk-music discoveries that would define his mature work, he forged his personal aesthetic and philosophy.