Fanny & Felix

Fanny Mendelssohn: Ausgewählte Lieder; String Quartet in E flat;

Felix Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin, Piano & Orchestra in D minor Malin Broman (violin, viola),

Simon Crawford-phillips (piano); Musica Vitae db Productions DBCD191 66:26 mins

The brother-andsister composers Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn are flavour of the month at the moment – perhaps partly because certain works by both are only now gaining recognition. Felix was so prolific but so careful about what he released that many of his pieces lay in manuscript form for a long time; Fanny only started to publish her own music towards the end of her life, meaning much has awaited discovery. The siblings died tragically young within months of each other in 1847.

Felix’s Double Concerto for piano and violin is a bustling virtuoso work demanding the fastest and lightest of touches and splitsecond coordination. It certainly receives this from its team here: the violinist Malin Broman and pianist Simon Crawford-phillips sparkle through the music as if loving every minute of it, and there’s precise, fine accompaniment from the 16-strong Musica Vitae string orchestra. Broman (on the viola) and Crawford-phillips offer eloquent interpretations of four songs by Fanny and the disc closes with a lively account of her String Quartet in chamber orchestra form, which Broman directs.

Versatile, sensitive and attentive as player and conductor, Broman emerges as the star of the disc, but the energy from all is unfailing, complemented by clear recorded sound with a good amount of resonance. Still, it would have been nice to hear Fanny’s music in its original forms rather than arrangements – it’s not as if the pieces are well known – and the Quartet, a fantastic and sprightly work, arguably sounds best with just four players. Jessica Duchen PERFORMANCE ★★★★

RECORDING ★★★★