Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847)
- Ouvertüre in C-Dur (1832)
Performers: The Women's Philharmonic; Joann Fаllеtta (conductor)
Further info: The Women's Philharmonic
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German composer, pianist and conductor. Sister of Felix Mendelssohn
(1809-1847), she was the eldest of four children born into a
post-Enlightenment, cultured Jewish family. She enjoyed an excellent
general and musical education throughout her childhood, but while he was
encouraged to pursue music professionally, she was prevented from doing
so by her father. Nevertheless, music remained centrally important to
her within private spaces such as the salon. She received her earliest
musical instruction from her mother, Lea Salomon (1777-1842), who taught
her the piano (she is reputed to have noted her daughter’s ‘Bach
fingers’ at birth). She then studied the piano with Ludwig Berger, and
in 1816 with Marie Bigot in Paris. A few years later she embarked on
theory and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter, a conservative
musician and early champion of Johann Sebastian Bach. Her first
composition dates from December 1819, a lied in honour of her father’s
birthday. In 1820 she enrolled at the newly opened Berlin Sing-Akademie.
During the next few years Mendelssohn produced many lieder and piano
pieces; such works were to be the mainstay of her output of about 500
compositions. In 1825, the Mendelssohns moved to Leipziger Straße 3, a
large property which allowed the family to establish one of the most
impressive musical salons of the century. In 1829, she married the
painter Wilhelm Hensel (1794-1861), whose active support of her gifts
meant that, exceptionally, marriage and motherhood did not spell the end
of her compositional life. She collaborated closely with her husband in
a purpose-built studio, Hensel responding to her music with drawings,
and she composing songs to his poetry. Beginning in the early 1830s, she
became the central figure in a flourishing salon, for which she created
most of her compositions and where she performed on the piano and
conducted. Two trips to Italy, in 1839-40 and 1845, were among the
highpoints of her life. In Rome she formed a close relationship with
Charles Gounod, who later noted Fanny’s influence on his budding musical
career. Her impressions of the first Italian trip are inscribed in 'Das
Jahr', a set of 12 character-pieces that combine musical and
autobiographical motifs. Her last composition, the lied 'Bergeslust',
was written on 13 May 1847, a day before her sudden death from a stroke.
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