Sontraud Engels Benz

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.

“She shared the brotherhood of talent with her famous sibling”, wrote the poet and music journalist Ludwig Rellstab at the death of Fanny Hensel née Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the wife of the Prussian court painter Wilhelm Hensel. It was a fitting epitaph for an extraordinary woman who had died after suffering a stroke on 14 May 1847 at the age of 41.

This is a splendid fellow and musician - with this quote Robert Schumann characterized the then 26-year-old Danish composer-colleague Niels Wilhelm Gade in a letter of January 5, 1844 to his Dutch friend Johannes Verhulst. The works on this release are testimonies of three different creative periods of Gade: an early work is the first Sonata in A major, op. 6 (dedicated to Clara Schumann) - the second Sonata in D minor, op. 21, (dedicated to Robert Schumann) was composed in 1850 - the third Sonata in B flat major, op. 59, (dedicated to Wilma Normann-Neruda) belongs to the circle of his late compositions. Among Gade's last works is the collection Volkstänze i'm nordischen Charakter, op. 62, written in 1886 for the great violinist Joseph Joachim.

The four-hand versions of orchestral works by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy recorded here by Sontraud Speidel and Franziska Lee are all by the composer himself and correspond to the musical text of the first editions published during Mendelssohn's lifetime, with the sole exception of the Overture to the Singspiel Soldatenliebschaft. The five works span a period of 22 years, presenting examples of little-known music for the operatic stage and the Overture Op. 24, which is unfortunately rarely heard, with two famous pieces from Mendelssohn's mature years.

The four-hand versions of orchestral works by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy recorded here by Sontraud Speidel and Franziska Lee are all by the composer himself and correspond to the musical text of the first editions published during Mendelssohn's lifetime, with the sole exception of the Overture to the Singspiel Soldatenliebschaft. The five works span a period of 22 years, presenting examples of little-known music for the operatic stage and the Overture Op. 24, which is unfortunately rarely heard, with two famous pieces from Mendelssohn's mature years.