Odious comparisons

Regarding her String Quartet in E f lat, the line ‘Fanny inevitably invited direct comparison with Felix Mendelssohn’ ( Building a Library, March) is asking to be queried. It’s traditional (but not unavoidable) to compare the siblings; she was the older, in many ways got there first, and their musical characters are quite different. His Op. 12 String Quartet was written aged 20 in 1829; hers took two movements from her own 1829 Piano Sonata and then (aged 29) she added a new Romanze and whirlwind Finale. To say the ‘thematic materials are closely related’ (to his work) tells us nothing of Fanny’s contribution. Fervent emotional expression is her core quality; and this quartet is among the first significant examples of the genre by a woman. How long will it take until women are not defined by comparison with men? Diana Ambache, London