The music in this program is pervaded by longing and dreaming. The Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture inspired by William Shakespeare’s play is performed in its own right because Mendellsohn composed it for orchestra and chorus and conducted it at the age of 17. As many years passed before he was commissioned by the King of Prussia to compose the entire stage music including the celebrated wedding march we all know. Liebeslieder-Walzer op.52 is the first set of Lieder, written by Johannes Brahms at the age of 38. In these love songs it seems that the composer was inspired by his passion for one of Schumann’s daughters. What makes them even more original is that they derive from the literatures of different countries, merge with a typical dance such as the waltz, and manage to express that cosmopolitan cultural openness of Europe at that time.