Mendelssohn’s sister finally has her own musical genius honoured
ARTS CORRESPONDENT IN life, she was overshadowed by her famous brother, patiently composing works of genius she never expected to see the light of day.
This week, 140 years on, a “lost” work by Fanny Mendelssohn is to be played in Britain for the first time, after her descendants worked tirelessly to win her the recognition she deserves.
Until now, the work, called
had been mistakenly attributed to her brother Felix, being recorded once in France in the Seventies in a work noting him as the composer.
But analysis of the manuscript’s handwriting, notation, corrections and page numbers corresponds directly to Fanny’s music book — showing that it was, in fact, written by her.
The piece will this week receive its debut on Radio 3, after her greatgreat-great granddaughter worked with the BBC to finally see her get the credit after being “unjustly neglected by history”.
will be broadcast live from a lunchtime concert on Wednesday at the Royal College of Music to mark International Women’s Day performed by Sofya Gulyak.
No one will be more proud to hear it than Sheila Hayman, a documentarymaker and direct descendant of Fanny.
The “ambitious, muscular” piece would, said Hayman, help redefine assumptions about Fanny, a woman striving to carve out her own creative life in an era which consigned her to role of housewife and mother.
Edwina Wolstencroft, BBC Radio 3 editor, said she hoped it would result in “overdue recognition” of Fanny as a “musical genius”.
Until recently, garnered just one brief mention in Fanny’s private diary, recording that she had played it at home in April 1829. But in common with her other compositions, it received no recognition in her lifetime and did not reach the public consciousness.
Believed lost, the manuscript did not resurface until the Seventies when the recording was made in France, attributing the work to Felix.
It then disappeared once again until 2010, when an American scholar, Dr Angela Mace Christian, tracked it down to a private archive and begged the owner to allow her to study it.
Once she saw it in person, she matched the handwriting on the manuscript with Fanny’s, dismissing theories that she could have copied it for Felix by pointing out a series of corrections suggesting it was written “live” by her.
Remarkably, page numbers on the bottom of the paper matched exactly with the missing parts of a music book held in an archive elsewhere. The original manuscript has since been sold into private hands.
Radio 3 listeners will this week be the first to hear the piece played in Britain, properly credited.
Hayman, who is working on a television documentary about it, said: “The story of my ancestor Fanny Mendelssohn becomes more fascinating the more you explore it, and the still-unfinished detective story of the
brings it right into the present. “It’s wonderful that the discovery of this lost work, its proper attribution to Fanny, and the continuing quest to locate the manuscript and produce a definitive edition, have given us a way to help bring Fanny back to public attention, give her due recognition and with luck, bring more of her unpublished music into the world.” Dr Christian said: “This is a major work, and one of huge ambition for someone aged only 23. Its rediscovery and proper attribution shows Fanny’s stature as a composer in a completely new light.”
Wolstencroft said: “As part of our International Women’s Day programming we want to give a platform and a voice to female composers who have been unjustly neglected by history.
“We are delighted to be able broadcast Fanny Mendelssohn’s
for the first time with its rightful attribution, and hope that the live broadcast contributes towards Fanny’s overdue recognition as a musical genius.”
It will be broadcast on March 8 on Radio 3 from 1pm, part of a project celebrating the previously unsung women in classical music. to to health, we’re potentially storing up problems for the NHS in future.”
According to the Children’s Sleep Charity, 30 per cent of children will suffer with sleep issues during their childhood, costing the NHS millions of pounds in appointments.
Instead, changing bedtime routines, such as leaving phones and tablets out of bedrooms, could provide a solution.
Vicki Dawson, the charity’s founder, said: “We have been inundated with requests for support from families of children across the country, we can receive up to 200 emails every day. When families are sleep deprived it can lead them into crisis.”
The NHS figures also indicate prescriptions for the sleep medication melatonin – a hormone that makes us sleepy – have risen tenfold for children and adults under 55 over the same 10-year period.
One aspect thought to be interfering with children’s sleep is the blue light emitted by smartphones and tablets, which reduces the natural production of melatonin. Later bedtimes in busy working households, and drinks high in sugar and caffeine are also thought to be worsening sleep deprivation.
More than 8,000 children under 14 were admitted into hospital in 2016 with a primary diagnosis of sleep disorder – up from below 3,000 in 2006.