The first British performance of the overture was conducted by Mendelssohn himself, on 24 June 1829, at the Argyll Rooms in London, at a concert in benefit of the victims of the floods in Silesia, and played by an orchestra that had been assembled by Mendelssohn's friend Sir George Smart. After the intermission, he joined the first violins for a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Loewe and Mendelssohn also appeared as soloists in Mendelssohn's Concerto in A-flat major for two pianos and orchestra, and Mendelssohn alone was the soloist for Carl Maria von Weber's Konzertstück in F minor. He had to travel 80 miles through a raging snowstorm to get to the concert, which was his first public appearance. Mendelssohn had turned 18 just over two weeks earlier. The overture was premiered in Stettin (then in Prussia now Szczecin, Poland) on 20 February 1827, at a concert conducted by Carl Loewe. The overture ends once again with the same opening four chords by the winds. The fairies return, and ultimately have the final word in the coda, just as in Shakespeare's play. The recapitulation begins with the same opening four chords in the winds, followed by the fairies theme and the other section in the second theme, including Bottom's braying. The fairies dominate most of the development section, while the lover's theme is played in a minor key. A final group of themes, reminiscent of craftsmen and hunting calls, brings the exposition to a close. This is followed by the braying of Bottom with the "hee-hawing" being evoked by the strings. Following the first theme in the parallel minor ( E minor) representing the dancing fairies, a transition (the royal music of the court of Athens) leads to a second theme, that of the lovers. The overture begins with four chords in the winds. Heinrich Eduard Jacob, in his biography of the composer, surmised that Mendelssohn had scribbled the opening chords after hearing an evening breeze rustle the leaves in the garden of the family's home. The piece is also noted for its striking instrumental effects, such as the emulation of scampering 'fairy feet' at the beginning and the braying of Bottom as an ass (effects which were influenced by the aesthetic ideas and suggestions of Mendelssohn's friend at the time, Adolf Bernhard Marx). While a romantic piece in atmosphere, the overture incorporates many classical elements, being cast in sonata form and shaped by regular phrasings and harmonic transitions. There was a family connection as well: Schlegel's brother Friedrich married Felix Mendelssohn's Aunt Dorothea. The translation was by August Wilhelm Schlegel, with help from Ludwig Tieck. The overture was written after Mendelssohn had read a German translation of the play in 1826. It was written as a concert overture, not associated with any performance of the play. Contemporary music scholar George Grove called it "the greatest marvel of early maturity that the world has ever seen in music". 21, was written by Mendelssohn at 17 years and 6 months old (it was finished on 6 August 1826). The incidental music includes the famous " Wedding March". 61) for a production of the play, into which he incorporated the existing overture.
Later, in 1842, only a few years before his death, he wrote incidental music (Op. First in 1826, near the start of his career, he wrote a concert overture ( Op. At two separate times, Felix Mendelssohn composed music for William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream (in German Ein Sommernachtstraum).
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