I'd urge anyone who's interested in Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream to hear Wilhelm Furtwängler's 1929 Berlin studio account of the Overture. Despite the historical mono sound, it's the finest, most spirited account I've ever heard:
Studio recording, Berlin, 1929:
I don't think Fürtwangler's live 1947 recording is as good, as it has an underlying tension that makes me uncomfortable. He also doesn't get Bottom's braying "hee-haw" sound as well (Bottom has been turned into a donkey), as the 1947 "hee-haw" sounds angry, even furious, rather than comical and fun, as it did in 1929.
Live recording, 1947:
Otherwise, the top 5 Midsummer Night's Dream recordings that I've most enjoyed over the years are as follows (& in no particular order): The 1983 Philips account by Sir Neville Marriner & the Philharmonia Orchestra, with one of my favorite sopranos, Arleen Auger (although Marriner's recording is incomplete, as he omits the Melodramas and cuts the 'rustic' ending of the Intermezzo); Erich Leinsdorf & the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with Inga Swanson as narrator (which is better than the BSO's later DG account with Ozawa); Kurt Masur's Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra recording on Teldec, of the complete score--with excerpts from the text of the play spoken in German; Otto Klemperer & the Philharmonia on EMI, with sopranos Heather Harper and Janet Baker (despite Klemperer's occasional slow tempi), and last but not least, Andre Previn's 1976 London Symphony Orchestra account on EMI, without dialogue (which I prefer to Previn's later remake in Vienna). I don't own any period instrument recordings of MSND, since I've felt that Kurt Masur's account suffices in the HIP category, considering that the Gewandhaus Orchestra plays in a musical tradition that Mendelssohn created.
Marriner:
Masur (just the Overture & Wedding March, performed live at a Gala Concert--not the Teldec recording):
Leinsdorf: Not on YT, and OOP and difficult to find on CD:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/Midsummer-...ghts&qid=1556907653&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull
Klemperer:
Previn:
I've also enjoyed the MSND selections that Peter Maag recorded with the LSO in 1957:
Finally, I have a high regard for the Mendelssohn conducting of Gunther Herbig, and his selections from A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Staatskapelle Berlin are well worth hearing. I might actually prefer Herbig to one of the above conductors, but I'd have to sit down and do some comparative listening, which I've not done. So, for now, call it my favorite 'sleeper' MSND recording:
My two cents.