I read this was written for a production of the Tempest in Copenhagen in 1926. Must really have been a lavish production to have incidental music of this quality!
I heard it at the Proms some years ago. It's magical and mysterious from the terrifying storm at the beginning. Of course, as in other great incidental music by Mendelssohn "Dream" and Grieg "Peer Gynt" (pronounced "Pair Goont"), if a concert is done with the dialogue the lines have to be abridged. Suites are a distortion.
There are pieces here I have never heard, as far as I know. Such as at 19:00. Wow. I had what I thought was a complete version, and it vanished from it's little brittle plastic jewel case. years back.
I love the concert suites from "The Tempest" but, whew, this performance of the complete score with voices is something else again. As an example of incidental music by any composer, it doesn't get much better than this, in my opinion.
Exquisite like the complete "Per Gynt" on RU-vid. The suites are a betrayal. "a Midsummer Night's Dream" incidental music is also marvellous. Sullivan and Coleridge Taylor's Shakespeare are weak in comparison.
