Mendelssohn wrote the incidental music, for Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in 1842, 16 years after he wrote the Overture. It was written to a commission from King Frederick William IV of Prussia. The music became one of Mendelssohn's most popular works. Act I of the play was played without music and the the 'Scherzo', with its sprightly scoring, dominated by chattering winds and dancing strings, acts as an intermezzo between Acts I and II.
