The Merry Wives of Windsor - Overture

Among the traditional events in the calendar of the Vienna Philharmonic, alongside its famous New Year’s Day celebration, is an annual Nicolai concert, dedicated to the memory of Otto Nicolai who founded the orchestra in 1842. Although he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in the Overture to Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor) in 1847, the opera itself was turned down the by Royal Opera in Vienna and it was only in 1849, after he had returned to Germany as musical director of the Berlin Royal Opera, that he was able to see it performed. Sadly, he died before he was able to witness the immense success his opera was to enjoy - particularly in Vienna, where it retains its place in the repertoire alongside that other masterful version of Shakespeare’s comedy, Verdi’s Falstaff.

The atmospheric material of the slow introduction to the Overture derives from the last scene, set at night by Herne’s Oak in Windsor Forest. As Falstaff’s tormentors enter, disguised as fairies, the tempo accelerates to allegro vivace, its lightly articulated main theme eventually being offset by a lovely lilting melody on violins – a melody which, though it is one of the best in the whole score, never appears in the opera itself.