Fanny Mendelssohn

German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser and Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson present a moving portrait of the Mendelssohn family with this recording of pieces by the siblings Felix and Fanny. Once composed for the popular Sunday Sessions at the Berlin Mendelssohn family house, these works fit into the typically nineteenth-century tradition of domestic music-making, albeit at the highest thinkable level. Beatson plays an 1837 Érard fortepiano, identical to the instrument that belonged to the Mendelssohn household when these pieces were composed. Besides Felix Mendelssohn’s two sonatas for cello and piano, his Variations concertantes, op. 17, Lied ohne Worte, op. 109 and Albumblatt in B Minor are featured. Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn’s Fantasia in G Minor and Capriccio in A-flat Major show what could have become of this talented female composer if societal conventions had not restricted her musical activities to the private salon.

There has been an upsurge of interest over recent years in Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's life and work, prompted both by her bicentenary in 2005 and a more general impulse to re-examine undervalued and neglected female artists. Those who have been exposed to even a fraction of her work may need no further encouragement to explore this new recording of a generous selection of her shorter piano works. But if this is unfamiliar territory, or if the music has been assumed to be sentimental and pretty drawing-room stuff, it might prove to be a rather surprising and exceptionally satisfying discovery.

The first album to bring together all of Fanny Mendelssohn’s four piano sonatas, written over the course of almost 20 years, and including the ‘Easter Sonata’ rediscovered in 2010.

A release which celebrates the talents and importance of the ‘other’ Mendelssohn and Schumann, who emerge from the shadows of their illustrious family names in a blaze of triumphant chamber music.

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, born four years before her brother, Felix Mendelssohn, was an accomplished pianist and a prolific composer. When she died of a stroke, aged just forty-two, she left around 460 pieces of music, some 250 of which are songs. The difficulties of making a career in her own era (her supportive father would not allow her to publish or work as a ‘professional’ composer) have condemned much of her work to obscurity, a situation that is now rapidly being reversed as the number of concerts and recordings devoted to works by women composers increases.

Sontraud Speidel's selection of works by Fanny Hensel reveals the true diversity and originality of one of the most important women composers. Only a small fraction of Hensel multifaceted oeuvre has entered the repertoire until today, and numerous treasures from her pen are still awaiting discovery.

As children, the two composers featured on this album both received the same, first-class education. However, it is widely and lazily accepted that only the male sibling dedicated his life to music, while the female sibling did not, and so it is hardly surprising that Fanny Mendelssohn’s catalogue of works is much more concise than that of her brother. On this disc, we wished to reflect the two Mendelssohns through a pair of works written for the same chamber ensemble. Though their respective musical languages share many points of similarity, their individual artistic personalities shine through in a fascinating manner. We are especially thrilled to be able to present a recording of these two works on suitable instruments for the period. It’s not as if there is a surplus of such recordings.