Composer Fanny Hensel: The less famous, equally talented Mendelssohn?
Hensel, sister of the composer Felix Mendelssohn, expressed herself in intriguingly individualistic effusions
Felix Mendelssohn
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Culture Fanny Mendelssohn’s Lost Sonata Finally Gets Its Premiere
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…
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The Schmooze Those Scandalous Mendelssohn Siblings
1920s Berlin was a wild place, and two of its wildest celebrities were descendants of the German Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn. The biography, “‘Is There Anything More Beautiful Than Desire?’: The Siblings Eleonora and Francesco von Mendelssohn,” is a diverting look at two arts madcaps. Its author, Thomas Blubacher, explains how Eleonora, an actress, dissipated…
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The Schmooze The Arty Semite Guide to Springtime Concerts
Approaching springtime should make New York-area music lovers in search of Yiddishkeit look beyond the obvious choice of Felix Mendelssohn, famed composer of the “Spring Song.” On March 20 at The Austrian Cultural Forum, ardent modernist songs by Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander von Zemlinsky will be performed by mezzo-soprano Brenda Patterson and soprano Katharine Dain…
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The Schmooze The Arty Semite Guide to Upcoming Concerts
Classical music events both before and after Purim (on March 8) focus on dialogues redolent of Yiddishkeit, as New Yorkers and others will discover. On February 10 at Weill Recital Hall pianist Lia Jensen-Abbott will perform Fanny Mendelssohn’s “The Year,” a work inspired by the composer’s relationship with her brother Felix. The Hungarian Jewish composer…
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The Schmooze NYC’s Warm Weather Concert Sounds
As temperatures climb, some New Yorkers gather their families and head for the countryside, while others remain en ville to seek similar experiences in concerts redolent of Yiddishkeit. One such is a May 26 recital at The Austrian Cultural Forum in which Austrian soprano Ursula Langmayr performs a selection of Gustav Mahler’s outdoors-inspired songs, accompanied…
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The Schmooze Scintillating CDs for a New Beginning, Between Sternness and Delight
Once Hosni Mubarak is liberated from his heavy chains of office, he’ll have time to kick back and appreciate some of the new classical CDs on offer. And, as many Egyptians have taken time to point out, he’s a big fan of Yiddishkeit. If he decides to take up American hospitality he might be especially…
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The Schmooze ‘Tis the Season to Be Classical: Unmissable December Concerts
While Hanukkah preparations and aftermath can overshadow every other human activity in December, ‘tis also the season for classical concerts, especially although by no means exclusively, in the New York area. These can include much Yiddishkayt, despite the seeming omnipresence of Handel’s “Messiah.” Mahler-lovers will not want to miss the much-loved British conductor Sir Colin…
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