Fanny Hensel: Piano Trio in D Minor Op. 11 (Women Composers 4)

Felix (1809-1847) and Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847) were musical prodigies, both in piano playing and composition. Visitors to Mendelssohn's home in the early 1820s, including Ignaz Moscheles, testified to the talent of brother and sister, who were very much in tune with each other musically.

Fanny had remarkable mental and artistic gifts - at age 13 she scored a Handel oratorio by way of practice for full orchestra. She was a better pianist than Felix and began writing songs at the age of 15. 

Unfortunately, in the 19th c. women composers were frowned upon. As Fanny and Felix approached adulthood, their father Abraham Mendelssohn made it unequivocally clear to his daughter that there was no future for her in music: “Music may become Felix's profession, while for you it can and must be an accomplishment.”

While Felix was given every freedom to develop his talent and made a great career internationally, for Fanny a life as housewife and mother was reserved. She was only able to express her musical talent in the Berlin amateur circuit, where, following her mother's example, she became the focal point of the Sonntagsmusiken, which were regularly given in the Mendelssohns' palatial home on Leipziger Strasse in Berlin. Her only public performance with orchestra took place in February 1838, when she played the Piano Concerto No. 1 op. 25 by her brother. 

Even though brother and sister were very close and had almost daily contact on musical matters, Felix did not support his sister’s musical aspirations. Like their father, Felix was against Fanny's wish to publish her compositions under her own name - he only changed his mind in 1846. However, this was so much a gender-based paternalistic attitude, but rather a matter of class - Berlin society in general did not permit its high society ladies to have professional careers. And as Jews the Mendelssohns were extra careful. Fanny's husband, the Prussian court painter Wilhelm Hensel, whom she married in 1829, was quite liberal, but apparently there was little he could do concretely. 

Fanny produced 466 musical compositions, mostly songs, piano works and chamber music. No work by Fanny was printed between 1837 and 1846. Among her most successful works are the piano cycle "Das Jahr" (twelve character pieces each depicting a month), the string quartet from 1834 and the beautiful piano trio in d minor op. 11 from 1846-1847.

Six months before his death, Felix attempted to ensure that his sister (who had died in 1847, only six months before her brother) received the recognition that had been withheld throughout much of her life. He collected many of her works intending to release them to the public through his publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel. In 1850, the publisher began to distribute Fanny Mendelssohn's unreleased works, starting with Vier Lieder Op. 8. The present piano trio was published in 1850. A public performance is mentioned in the 11 February 1852 Neue Berliner Musikzeitung, given by Taubert, Ganz & Zimmermann. Commencing in the late 1980s, Fanny Mendelssohn's music has become better known, thanks to concert performances and new recordings.

Here is Fanny Henselt's piano trio, in a wonderful performance by the Aletheia Piano Trio (Fei-Fei, piano; Francesca dePasquale, violin ; Juliette Herlin, cello). The recording is in three parts.

Women Composers Index

Part 1:

Part II and III:
 

 Part IV: