‘Easter Sonata’ resurrection brings Fanny her recognition

Forgotten German composer

‘To be Fanny it’s not always funny’, she would say almost two hundred years ago. The world has changed, slowly but steadily and it isn’t easy for any woman almost in any field until today.

The works by female composers performed on contemporary stages until now is only seven percent of the total number.

They existed from the beginning: from Hildegard of Bingen (10891179, German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher and polymath, Doctor of the Church), Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969, Polish renowned composer), Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979, French composer, conductor and great pedagogue) and contemporary Sophia Gubaidulina (1931, the much-appreciated Russian composer).

However, composing was recognized as the men’s domain. Women’s creations were taken as easy, weaker and derivative.

But the 20th and 21st centuries have prominently changed such opinions. The female composers are winning their rights and appreciation in the music field in their long battle for equality.

The work called ‘Easter Sonata’ for piano was never published before because its manuscript was not found until 1970 when the producer and collector of music records Henri-Jacques Coudert found the manuscript in an antique Parisian bookshop.

When he saw the manuscript signed ‘F. Mendelssohn’ he was sure that he had just discovered the lost masterpiece of the famous German romantic, Felix Mendelssohn Bart hold ya nd the work was soon recorded by the French pianist, Eric Heidsieck.

Resurrection

It so happened that a young female American musicologist, Angela Mace Christian, found at the Berlin State Library manuscripts by Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix’s sister.

Through comparative analyzes she proved that the Easter Sonata was the work of Felix’s sister. Even at that time Coudert, the person who discovered it claimed it was not a ‘lady’s work’ because ‘it had a masculine sound, too offensive and ambitious’. He suggested Fanny may have copied the work of her brother.

The Easter holiday this year is on April 16 but the first ever presentation under the real composer’s name, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, was presented on the International Women’s Day, March 8, at the Royal College of Music in London, also performed by a female Russian excellent pianist, Sofia Gulyak. The concert was transmitted live by the BBC Radio 3.

The same day The Guardian published the article of Fanny Mendelssohn - Hensel (1805-1847) written by Sheila Hayman, writer, movie producer and director, and the great grand-granddaughter of the forgotten German composer.

‘After 198 years, from the date of composing the Easter Sonata, it was finally made into a public performance under a proper name. I am happy that my outstanding foremother found the deserved appreciation,’ she wrote.

Fanny was born in Hamburg as the oldest of the four children, one of them the renowned brother Felix, in the family of well-known philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, Fanny’s grandpa, a Christian family of Jewish origin.

From early childhood she studied piano, under her mother, who was trained in the Berliner-Bach tradition by Johann Kirnberger, himself a student of J.S. Bach!

The 13-year-old girl to honor her father on his birthday played by heart all 24 preludes and a fugue from Bach’s the Well-Tempered Clavier. (It was an amazing achievement by a teenager, the proof of the great talent and - memory!)

Her mother, Lea said after her performance ‘She has fingers born to play Bach.’ But her father, Abraham’s reaction was different: ‘Well, great, dear daughter, but remember that you are a woman. You have to forget about public performances!’

However, she briefly studied the piano in Paris and in 1820 went to study with her brother Felix at the Sing-Academy in Berlin led by C. F. Zelter. Even according to the professor, Fanny was the favorite over Felix according to a letter he addressed to the poet.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe said ‘(they are)... adorable children; elder girl could give you something of J.S. Bach. This child is really something special’. And in the next letter he even lavished the highest praise on her for a woman at that time: ‘She plays like a man!’

The siblings shared a great passion for music, both in playing and composing. Her composer father was more tolerant if not supportive.

In the same year in 1820 he wrote in the letter: ‘Music will perhaps become his (Felix) profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament.’ Felix shared that opinion: ‘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 not of the musical world, not even of music at all, until her first duties are fulfilled. Publishing would only disturb her in these...’

Special to the Arab Times

Contacts

In 1829 Felix travelled around Europe, maintained several contacts with other composers (including Chopin) and presented his works in the concerts. Fanny stayed home. She was depraved from such contacts and her abilities were limited only to private concerts on Sundays at family residences. Sheila Heyman did not have so good opinion of Felix as a brother. She said he was an egoist and did too little to help his sister. Even he supported other female composers, and himself even conducted the premiere of Piano Concerto by Clara Schumann, an outstanding pianist and Robert’s wife.

‘As children they were so close, studying music together, commenting mutually their works. When they grew up, their links were broken.’ She received more support from her husband. In 1829 she married the painter of the Prussian King’s Court, Wilhelm Hensel and they had one child. He encouraged her for composing as he was impressed by music she wrote for their wedding. Even this she wrote mainly ‘to the draw’.

Several of her works fluctuate around 500 pieces, mainly vocal songs and piano pieces but only including cantatas for soloists, choir and orchestra as well as oratorio ‘Pictures from the Bible’. Some of the songs were edited when she was alive but in the name of her brother, Felix. ‘For her it was the only chance to publish her works,’ Hayman wrote for the The Guardian.

One of those was a favorite song of the British Queen Victoria but the Monarch was unaware that the real author was the sister of the composer whom she admired very much. When The Queen invited Felix in June 1842 to the Buckingham Palace she decided to sing herself that song to honor her guests. That time Felix disclosed to the Queen the authentic author, his sister Fanny and informed about this to his sister and family in a letter.

In recent years her music has become better known thanks to concert performances and a number of CD records. Her reputation has also been advanced by those researching female music creativity. Relatively she is a better documented exemplar of the 19th century.

Respectable

Her cycle of 12 piano pieces based on the months of ‘The Year’ (Das Jahr) is gaining more and more popularity; thanks to the few records under respectable labels. She described the process behind composing it: ‘I have been composing a good deal lately, and have called my piano pieces after the name of favorite haunts, partly because they really came into my mind at these spots, partly because of pleasant excursions were in my mind while I am 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 entirely for home use ...’

‘That cycle is an event in the piano literature history, original in its form as well as richness in melodic, rhythmical and harmony spheres. Bah was her sign-post,’ says a critic. Already in 19th century Fanny impressed a young French composer, Charles Gounod (author of opera ‘Faust’) when he met her in Rome.

Mme Hensel is an incomparable musician, outstanding pianist, a lady of highly intelligence. Thanks to her phenomenal memory I became acquainted with a lot of German music masterpieces, remembers Gounod.

Fanny died in Berlin in 1847 when she was 41 from a stroke while rehearsing with her brother oratorio. Felix followed her six months later, also a victim of stroke.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy soon became part of history as an early romantic author of symphonies, concertos, chamber music, songs and oratorios. His sister Fanny had to wait for her turn for almost 200 years... better late than never.

Editor’s Note: Cezary Owerkowicz is the chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Philharmonia and talented pianist. He regularly organises concerts by well-known musicians for the benefit of music lovers and to widen the knowledge of music in Kuwait. His e-mail address is: cowerkowicz @ yahoo.com and cowerkowicz@