Classical Party: A Summer Night To Remember
Summer may seem like the shortest of seasons, but at least the evenings are long and warm. As we wend our way into August, when the sticky air makes it easy to forget how little time remains until fall, here are five pieces by classical composers who embraced summer nights. Here's hoping the music signifies both summertime and celebration the next time you spend a hot night entertaining guests.
For more entries in this summer's weekly It's Time to Party: Summer Songs series, click here.
Classical Party: A Summer Night To Remember
Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream
Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream
- from Shakespeare's Music: Classic and Popular Music Inspired by the Plays
- by Various Artists
Celebrating the longest day of the year is one of those ancient pagan rituals that was turned into a Christian holiday when June 24 became the Feast of St. John the Baptist. The eve of that feast is a night for lovers, and for magic. Shakespeare put both into his comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Felix Mendelssohn's "Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream" includes scurrying fairies, royal trumpets and Bottom the Weaver in his donkey's head, braying, "Hee haw, hee haw!" The summer of 2009 may have careened all the way into August, but it's not too late to revel in the simple pleasures of summer's longest stretches of daylight.
St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain (Ivanova noch' na Lisoy gore), symphonic poem for orchestra
St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain
- Song: St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain (Ivanova noch' na Lisoy gore), symphonic poem for orchestra
- from Le Sacre du Printemps [Hybrid SACD]
- by Esa-Pekka Salonen
The aforementioned midsummer night is cause for all kinds of revelry -- some Shakespearean, some Mussorgskian. The full title of A Night on Bald Mountain is actually St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain, because it was inspired by a witches' sabbath in Gogol's story St. John's Eve. Shortly after the piece premiered, a critic called it "an orgy of ugliness," which just proves that Mussorgsky got it exactly right.
Swedish Rhapsody No. 1, for orchestra ("Midsommarvaka"), Op. 19
Swedish Rhapsody No. 1, for orchestra ("Midsommarvaka"), Op. 19
- from Swedish Orchestral Favourites
- by Various
Different countries have different ways of celebrating summer. Many of them involve bonfires -- which is kind of strange, given that this is the time of year when days are at their longest, and a lot of the countries that celebrate the season are so far north that the sun doesn't even set for long stretches.
Serenade No. 13 in G major, K. 525, Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Serenade): Allegro
Serenade No. 13 in G major, K. 525, Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Serenade): Allegro
- from Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
- by Vienna Chamber Orchestra / Philippe Entremont
Serenades were originally performed outdoors in the evening -- presumably a summer evening, because neither audience nor musicians would be terribly enthusiastic about standing around outside in the cold. Most of Mozart's serenades were written for special events like birthdays and graduations, but "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (A Little Night Music), his finest serenade, remains a great mystery. There's no record of its first performance, or for whom Mozart might have written it.
Summer Night, suite for orchestra, Op. 123
Summer Night, suite for orchestra, Op. 123
- from Prokofiev: Cinderella
- by Mikhail Pletnev
Sergei Prokofiev was looking for a little relief from Soviet ideology when he turned Richard Sheridan's play Betrothal in a Monastery into an opera (although Prokofiev did throw a bone to the authorities by including a scene full of tipsy monks). The composer turned some of the music from the opera into a suite titled "Summer Night." Since this CD also contains Prokofiev's ballet Cinderella, there's another great bit of nocturnal music on it: "Midnight," with the clock striking 12.