A few recordings have been devoted to the music of Fanny Hensel, who was Felix Mendelssohn's sister. There is a unique release covering music she composed during an Italian journey that was also memorialized in paintings by her husband, artist Ludwig Hensel. But this release by German baritone Tobias Berndt and accompanist Alexander Fleischer represents a whole new ballgame. The pair programmed music by Hensel in song recitals, were impressed by its high quality, went looking for more, and found it in libraries where it had rested undisturbed for nearly two centuries. The current count of Hensel songs is about 250, which is more than Mendelssohn composed. The decision to record settings of Goethe texts is a good one, for it automatically gives listeners some of Hensel's most ambitious efforts. Her songs reflect a consciousness of both Mendelssohn and Schubert, but don't sound much like either one. They offer the accompanist, who would have been Hensel herself, a great deal to do, and there's a sort of weighty lyricism that diverges from Schubert's limpid simplicity and Mendelssohn's melodicism. There is not a bit of the conventional foursquare setting in a single one of them, and Hensel even manages to make the tiny Wiederfinden (track 19) into an entrancing original. This recording was obviously something of a labor of love for Berndt and Fleischer, who take care with each individual song and give the music their best. The booklet for this release is in German only, a disadvantage except for readers of that language, inasmuch as the recording offers major discoveries that ought to be publicized as widely as possible.
Review by James Manheim
This is a very budget-oriented reissue of a 1997 recording of songs by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, shorn of any commentary but with English translations of the original German texts intact. Commentary helps elucidate the songs of Felix Mendelssohn's sister, who was encouraged by her artist husband Wilhelm Hensel (and were in some cases connected with their travels around Europe) but only intermittently by her own family. But these are solid performances, well worth the few dollars they cost for anyone wanting to check out this music. Chinese soprano Lan Rao, who has also recorded songs of Clara Schumann, has a muscular, sharp-edged voice that quickly dispels any sense of prettiness that an earlier age might have attached to these songs. The selection of songs is weighted toward texts by the classic German poets, with Goethe, Heine, and Eichendorff predominating. Rao gives the music a strong dose of passion, with a natural treatment of those songs in which the protagonist is identifiably male. She has a way of bringing out Mendelssohn's emphasis on lines like 'Und unerwartet kommt die Qual' and torment comes unexpectedly. The accompaniment by Micaela Gelius is lively without ever crowding the vocalist. While there are a few more personal songs that might have balanced the program a bit better, this CD offers an excellent introduction to a key figure in the ongoing rediscovery of concert music by women.
(Redirected from Lieder ohne Worte)
Songs Without Words (Lieder ohne Worte) is a series of short lyrical piano pieces by the Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn, written between 1829 and 1845. His sister Fanny Mendelssohn and other composers also wrote pieces in the same genre.
Music[edit]
The eight volumes of Songs Without Words, each consisting of six 'songs' (Lieder), were written at various points throughout Mendelssohn's life, and were published separately. The piano became increasingly popular in Europe during the early nineteenth century, when it became a standard item in many middle-class households. The pieces are within the grasp of pianists of various abilities and this undoubtedly contributed to their popularity. This great popularity has caused many critics to under-rate their musical value.[citation needed]
The first volume was published by Novello in London (1832) as Original Melodies for the Pianoforte, but the later volumes used the title Songs Without Words.[1]
The works were part of the Romantic tradition of writing short lyrical pieces for the piano, although the specific concept of 'Song Without Words' was new. Mendelssohn's sister Fanny wrote a number of similar pieces (though not so entitled) and, according to some music historians, she may have helped inspire the concept. The title Song Without Words seems to have been Felix Mendelssohn's own invention. In 1828, Fanny wrote in a letter 'My birthday was celebrated very nicely ... Felix has given me a 'song without words' for my album (he has lately written several beautiful ones).'[1]
Mendelssohn himself resisted attempts to interpret the Songs too literally, and objected when his friend Marc-André Souchay sought to put words to them to make them literal songs:
What the music I love expresses to me, is not thought too indefinite to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite. (Mendelssohn's own italics)[2]
Mendelssohn also wrote other Songs Without Words not collected in volumes, and published only in recent years. Furthermore, original drafts exist for many of the 'Songs' many of which differ quite substantially from the eventually published versions.[3] In 2008, the Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda recorded a collection of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words for Decca Records totalling 56 Lieder, some of them never recorded before.
Pieces[edit]
The titles attributed to some of the Songs below were given by Mendelssohn himself.[4][not in citation given] Other fanciful titles were given to certain of the pieces by later publishers but have no authority and do not reflect any intention of the composer.
Book 1, Op. 19b (1829–30)[edit]
Book 2, Op. 30 (1833–34)[edit]
Book 2 was dedicated to Elisa von Woringen.[5]
Song number 2 was written for his sister Fanny to celebrate the birth of her son in 1830.[1]
Book 3, Op. 38 (1836–37)[edit]
Song number 6 was given the title Duetto by Mendelssohn, since two melodies were written to represent two singers. It was composed in Frankfurt in June 1836, soon after he had met his future wife.[1]
Book 3 was dedicated to Rosa von Woringen.[5]
Book 4, Op. 53 (1839–41)[edit]
Irving Berlin's ragtime take on Op. 62, No. 6
Book 4 was dedicated to Sophia Horsley.[1]
Book 5, Op. 62 (1842–44)[edit]
Song No. 6 'Spring Song' was also sometimes known in England as 'Camberwell Green', being the place in London where Mendelssohn composed it while staying with the Benneckes, relatives of his wife.[1]
Book 5 was dedicated to Clara Schumann.[1]
Book 6, Op. 67 (1843–45)[edit]
The Spinnerlied has also been given the nickname the 'Bee's Wedding' since the busy accompaniment to the melody resembles the buzzing of bees.
Book 6 was dedicated to Sophie Rosen.[1]
Book 7, Op. 85 (1843–45)[edit]
This book, and Book 8, were published posthumously.
Book 8, Op. 102 (1842–45)[edit]
Related works[edit]
A piece in D major for cello and piano, written by Mendelssohn around 1845, was published for the first time after his death. It was designated opus 109 and entitled Song Without Words. It is not related to any of the piano pieces.[6] Cellist Carlos Prieto called the piece 'an exquisite composition, worthy of the finest pieces Mendelssohn ever composed for this genre.'[7]
A piece for piano in E minor by Mendelssohn was published after his death under Op. 117, entitled Albumblatt ('Album Leaf');[8] a further piece for piano by Mendelssohn was published after his death, without opus number, listed as WoO 10, titled Gondellied ('Gondola Song').[9] Some historians believe these to have been intended for another set of Songs Without Words.
Arrangements[edit]
Mendelssohn made piano duet arrangements of a number of the songs, namely those that became Book 5 and the first song of Book 6, which he presented to Queen Victoria in 1844.[10] Mendelssohn was also aware of arrangements of some of the earlier Lieder for piano duet by Carl Czerny.[11] Many others have made various arrangements of individual songs, including for orchestra, chamber ensemble, or solo instrument with piano accompaniment. One such example is the arrangement of 22 of the songs by Mendelssohn's student, the German violist Friedrich Hermann (1828–1907), for violin and piano.[12]
In 1834, Franz Liszt wrote his Grosses Konzertstück über Mendelssohns Lieder ohne Worte (Grand Concert Piece on Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words) for 2 pianos. This was based on songs 1–3 of Book I, Op. 19b.[13] Liszt and a student, Mlle. Vial, started to play it in Paris on 9 April 1835[14] but Liszt became ill during the performance. Ferruccio Busoni planned to play it in London with Egon Petri, but died before the plan could be realised. It was finally first performed in full by Richard and John Contiguglia at the 1984 Holland Liszt Festival in Utrecht.[15]
There are also examples of recordings of transcriptions, for solo instrument and piano accompaniment, of Mendelssohn lieder written for the voice, which have been entitled 'Songs Without Words', for instance by Mischa Maisky. No such arrangements were however made, or so titled, by Mendelssohn himself.
By other composers[edit]
Fanny Mendelssohn's early collections of piano works opp. 2,6, and 8 are titled Lieder für das Pianoforte (Songs for the piano).
Other composers who were inspired to produce similar sets of pieces of their own included Charles-Valentin Alkan (the five sets of Chants, each ending with a barcarolle), Anton Rubinstein, Ignaz Moscheles and Edvard Grieg (his 66 Lyric Pieces). Two Songs Without Words (Op. 10) for piano were also written by Mykola Lysenko.
Both Alkan and Rubinstein frequently included items from Mendelssohn's Songs in their recitals. Ferruccio Busoni, who considered Mendelssohn 'a master of undisputed greatness', turned to the Songs Without Words in the last year of his life for a projected series of recitals in London.
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
Fanny Mendelssohn OvertureExternal links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Songs_Without_Words&oldid=881764973'
Fanny Hensel, 1842, by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim
Fanny Mendelssohn (14 November 1805 – 14 May 1847),[1] later Fanny [Cäcilie] Mendelssohn Bartholdy and, after her marriage, Fanny Hensel, was a German pianist and composer. She composed over 460 pieces of music. Her compositions include a piano trio and several books of solo piano pieces and songs. A number of her songs were originally published under her brother, Felix Mendelssohn's, name in his opus 8 and 9 collections. Her piano works are often in the manner of songs, and many carry the name Lieder für das Pianoforte (Songs for the piano, a parallel to Felix's Songs without Words).
In Hamburg, the Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn Museum is dedicated to the lives and the work of her and her brother Felix.[2]
Life[edit]
Fanny Mendelssohn, sketched by her future husband Wilhelm Hensel
Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, the oldest of four children, including the composer Felix Mendelssohn. She was descended on both sides from distinguished Jewish families; her parents were Abraham Mendelssohn (who was the son of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and later changed the family surname to Mendelssohn Bartholdy), and Lea, née Salomon, a granddaughter of the entrepreneur Daniel Itzig. Her uncle was the banker Joseph Mendelssohn. She was not brought up as Jewish, and never practised Judaism, though it has been suggested that she 'retained the cultural values of liberal Judaism'.[3]
She received her first piano instruction from her mother, who had been trained in the Berliner-Bach tradition by Johann Kirnberger, who was himself a student of Johann Sebastian Bach. Thus as a 13 year old, Fanny could already play all 24 Preludes from Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier by heart, and she did so in honor of her father's birthday in 1818. She studied briefly with the pianist Marie Bigot in Paris, and finally with Ludwig Berger. In 1820 Fanny, along with her brother Felix, joined the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin which was led by Carl Friedrich Zelter. Zelter at one point favored Fanny over Felix: he wrote to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1816, in a letter introducing Abraham Mendelssohn to the poet, 'He has adorable children and his oldest daughter could give you something of Sebastian Bach. This child is really something special'.[4] Much later, in an 1831 letter to Goethe, Zelter described Fanny's skill as a pianist with the highest praise for a woman at the time: 'She plays like a man.' Both Fanny and Felix received instruction in composition with Zelter starting in 1819.[5]
Fanny showed prodigious musical ability as a child and began to write music. Visitors to the Mendelssohn household in the early 1820s, including Ignaz Moscheles and Sir George Smart, were equally impressed by both siblings. She may also have been influenced by the role-models of her great-aunts Fanny von Arnstein and Sarah Levy, both lovers of music, the former the patroness of a well-known salon and the latter a skilled keyboard player in her own right.[6]
However, Fanny was limited by prevailing attitudes of the time toward women, attitudes apparently shared by her father, who was tolerant, rather than supportive, of her activities as a composer. Her father wrote to her in 1820 'Music will perhaps become his [i.e. Felix's] profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament'.[7] Although Felix was privately broadly supportive of her as a composer and a performer, he was cautious (professedly for family reasons) of her publishing her works under her own name. He wrote:
From my knowledge of Fanny I should say that she has neither inclination nor vocation for authorship. She is too much all that a woman ought to be for this. She regulates her house, and neither thinks of the public nor of the musical world, nor even of music at all, until her first duties are fulfilled. Publishing would only disturb her in these, and I cannot say that I approve of it.[8]
The siblings shared a great passion for music. Felix did arrange with Fanny for some of her songs to be published under his name,[9] three in his Op. 8 collection,[10] and three more in his Op. 9.[11] In 1842 this resulted in an embarrassing moment when Queen Victoria, receiving Felix at Buckingham Palace, expressed her intention of singing the composer her favourite of his songs, 'Italien' (to words by Franz Grillparzer), which Mendelssohn confessed was by Fanny.[9][10]
In turn Fanny helped Felix by constructive criticism of pieces and projects, which he always considered very carefully.[12] Their correspondence of 1840/41 reveals that they were both outlining scenarios for an opera on the subject of the Nibelungenlied: Fanny wrote 'The hunt with Siegfried's death provides a splendid finale to the second act'.[13]
In 1829, after a courtship of several years, Fanny married the painter Wilhelm Hensel and the following year she had her only child, Sebastian Ludwig Felix Hensel.[14] Sebastian's sons Paul became a philosopher, and Kurt became a mathematician.
Wilhelm was supportive of Fanny's composing. Subsequently, her works were often played alongside her brother's at the family home in Berlin in a Sunday concert series (Sonntagskonzerte), which was originally organised by Fanny's father, and after 1831 carried on by Fanny herself. Her public debut at the piano (and only known public performance) came in 1838, when she played her brother's Piano Concerto No. 1. In 1846, she decided, without consulting Felix, to publish a collection of her songs (as her Op. 1).[15]
Fanny Mendelssohn Lieder Best Recording Software
Grave of Fanny Hensel in Berlin
Fanny Hensel died in Berlin in 1847 of complications from a stroke suffered while rehearsing one of her brother's cantatas, The First Walpurgis Night. Felix himself died less than six months later from the same cause (which was also responsible for the deaths of both of their parents and of their grandfather Moses),[16] but not before completing his String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, written in memory of his sister.
In recent years, her music has become better known thanks to concert performances and a number of CDs being released on labels such as Hyperion and CPO. Her reputation has also been advanced by those researching female musical creativity, of which she is one of the relatively few well-documented exemplars in the early 19th century.[citation needed]
Music[edit]
Fanny Mendelssohn composed over 460 pieces of music.[12] Her compositions include a piano trio and several books of solo piano pieces and songs. A number of her songs were originally published under Felix's name in his opus 8 and 9 collections. Her piano works are often in the manner of songs, and many carry the name Lied ohne Worte (Song without Words). This style (and title) of piano music was most successfully developed by Felix Mendelssohn, though some modern scholars assert that Fanny may have preceded him in the genre.
She also wrote, amongst other works for the piano, a cycle of pieces depicting the months of the year, Das Jahr ('The Year').[17] The music was written on coloured sheets of paper, and illustrated by her husband Wilhelm. Each piece was also accompanied by a short poem. In a letter from Rome, Fanny Mendelssohn described the process behind composing Das Jahr:
Fanny Mendelssohn Children
I have been composing a good deal lately, and have called my piano pieces after the names of my favourite haunts, partly because they really came into my mind at these spots, partly because our pleasant excursions were in my mind while I was writing them. They will form a delightful souvenir, a kind of second diary. But do not imagine that I give these names when playing them in society, they are for home use entirely.[18]
Amongst her works is the Easter Sonata written in 1828, which was unpublished in her lifetime, then discovered and attributed to her brother in 1970, before examination of the manuscript and a mention of the work in her diary finally established that the work was hers in 2010.[19] It was debuted in her name on 8 March 2017, International Women's Day.[20]
Grandchildren[edit]
She was the grandmother of the philosopher Paul Hensel and the mathematician Kurt Hensel.
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fanny_Mendelssohn&oldid=899227482'
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