Fanny Mendelssohn (1805 – 1847)
Fanny Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg into a distinguished Jewish family. Her father was banker and philanthropist Abraham Mendelssohn and her grandfather (who died before she was born) was the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Fanny had three younger siblings, including Felix.
Abraham Mendelssohn believed that Jews should participate fully in German public life and culture, even if this meant abandoning Judaism. He had his children baptized and changed their last name to Mendelssohn Bartholdy, under the assumption that the Mendelssohn part of the name would fade away with further assimilation. Although that compound last name is sometimes used even today, both Fanny and Felix hated it.
Both Fanny and Felix were encouraged by their father in their studies of music and composition, but their father had very different ideas for their futures: Felix would publish his compositions and perform in public, while Fanny’s music making would be confined to domestic settings. Some of Fanny’s early songs were published under Felix’s name.
In 1829, Fanny Mendelssohn married artist Wilhelm Hensel and is often known by her married name, Fanny Hensel, as in the title of a 2010 biography by R. Larry Todd: Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn. The Hensels had only one child, but he was given a very musical name: Sebastian Ludwig Felix.
At about the age of 40, Fanny decided it was time to begin having some of her songs and piano pieces published. Opus 1 through 7 were published during the last couple years of her life. Opus 8 through 11 (her Piano Trio of 1847) were published posthumously after her sudden death from a stroke. The remainder of Fanny’s music — totaling over 400 works — remained uncatalogued and unpublished until a recent focus on her life and compositions beginning in the 1980s. Here is her 1834 String Quartet:
Fanny Mendelssohn’s 1841 piano composition Das Jahr (The Year) has a movement for each of the 12 months. The autograph manuscript is embellished with drawings by Fanny’s husband and each month is preceded by a short verse. Despite its majestic scope and sumptuous piano writing, “Das Jahr” was not published until 1989. This performance is by Ukrainian pianist Anna Shelest.