Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

The First Walpurgis Night

Ballad by Goethe for soloists, choir and orchestra - piano reduction by the composer
Edited by John Michael Cooper
Text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


In the summer of 1799, Goethe wrote his ballad The First Walpurgis Night and asked his friend Carl Friedrich Zelter to set the work to music. However, Zelter felt unable to do so and so Goethe's wish was not realized until 30 years later by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. After a visit to Weimar, the 'heavenly words' of the pagan ballad had virtually urged Mendelssohn to set it to music. The composition took shape in 1832 and was premiered a year later at the Berlin Sing-Akademie.
However, Mendelssohn was dissatisfied with the first version of the work and held it back until he decided on a thorough revision ten years after the premiere. In this form, in which the work is still performed today, Die erste Walpurgisnacht was premiered in Leipzig in 1843 in the presence of Robert Schumann and Hector Berlioz. With the edition by John Michael Cooper, Associate Professor of Music History at the University of North Texas (Denton), an Urtext edition of the work is now being presented for the first time on the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth. The edition is based on the latest research, and a critical report rounds off the volume.