Overture incorporating "God Save the King" at its climax). However, the overture "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1826) by Felix Mendelssohn is generally regarded as the first concert overture (Temperley 2001). Mendelssohn's other contributions to this genre include his "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage" overture (1828), his overture "The Hebrides" (1830; also known as "Fingal's Cave") and the overtures "Die schöne Melusine" ("The Fair Melusine", 1834) and "Ruy Blas" (1839). Other notable early concert overtures were written by Hector Berlioz (e.g., "Les Francs juges" (1826), and "Le corsaire" (1828)). In the 1850s the concert overture began to be supplanted by the symphonic
1812 Overture 1812 Overture The Year 1812 Solemn Overture, festival overture in E major, Op. 49, popularly known as the 1812 Overture, is a concert overture written in 1880 by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to commemorate the successful Russian defence against Napoleon's invading Grande Armée in 1812. The overture debuted in Moscow on August 20, 1882, conducted by Ippolit Al'tani under a tent near the then-unfinished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which also memorialized the 1812 defence of Russia. The overture was conducted by Tchaikovsky himself in 1891 at the dedication of Carnegie Hall, in what was one of the first