Fanny Mendelssohn’s Lost Sonata Finally Gets Its Premiere
Fanny Mendelssohn
Imagine learning all of Bach’s 48 preludes and fugues by heart and being told, “that’s cute.” You’d smash your instrument, and the interlocutor in rage. Well, that’s precisely what happened to Fanny Mendelssohn (it happened to countless women then, and continues to happen now). Fanny, though a musical prodigy and a prolific composer, was overshadowed throughout her life by her more famous, equally prodigious brother Felix — you may have heard of him.
Well now, 170 years after her death, one of Fanny’s “lost” compositions is about to get its premiere. The BBC reported earlier this week that Fanny’s “Easter Sonata” will finally be heard on March 8th on BBC Radio 3. The sonata, discovered in a French book shop in 1970, was originally thought to have been Felix’s composition. But Dr. Angela Mace Christian, an American Scholar, was able to prove that the “F Mendelssohn” signature was Fanny’s, not Felix’s. She told the BBC that “this is a major work, and one of huge ambition for someone aged only twenty three.”
The piece is being premiered, just in time for the Women’s Strike, as part of a day of programming that highlights female musicians.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
