Much ado about nothing Suite Op.11 (1919)

Mädchen im Brautgemach

Holzapfel und Schlehenwein

Gartenscene

Mummenschanz

Korngold wrote his incidental music for a German version of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” (Viel Lärm um Nichts) at the same time as he was working on his third opera Die tote Stadt, which was to add another dimension to his already prodigious youthful reputation. Originally scored for small orchestra, the incidental music was first performed when Maz Reinhardts’s production of the play opened at the Schönbrunner Schlosstheater in Vienna in the summer of 1920. The Reinhardt-Korngold collaboration (the first of many) proved to be so successful that on its transfer to the Burgtheater it outran the availability of the Vienna Philharmonic instrumentalists who had been involved up that point. Korngold’s answer to the problem was to arrange his music for violin and piano and it was from that score that he compiled the present suite.

Mädchen im Brautgemach (Maiden in the Bridal Chamber) is associated with Hero’s misgivings as she puts on her wedding dress: “God give me joy to wear it, for my heart is exceeding heavy.” A wistful little piece, it seems rather more capricious in this version, more Fritz Kreisler than Richard Strauss, than in the orchestral original. Holzapfel und Schlehenwein (literally Crabapple and Plum Wine) is a grotesque march for the two “foolish officers” Dogberry and Verges. In Gartenscene (Garden Scene) Beatrice realises that, in spite of herself, she is in love with Benedick: “Contempt farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!” she exclaims as her heart melts in romantic melody. The Mummenschanz (Masquerade) comes at the very end of the play in response to Benedick’s “Strike up, pipers” and, wittily scored as it is for violin and piano, is scarcely less entertaining without wind instruments than with them.