Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-flat Major

String Quartet in E-flat Major

from 10 August 2024, Musikhuset København

program notes

Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847), was an immensely talented Jewish German pianist who composed over 460 works, including piano pieces, lieder (songs), and chamber music. Though her compositions were not widely performed or published due to societal barriers, she held regular salons at her home in Berlin, where she shared her music with select peers. Her brother Felix was a lifelong confidant, and the two helped and guided each other’s musical endeavours—they even arranged to publish a handful of her compositions under his name.

The summer before her marriage to Wilhelm Hensel, Fanny Mendelssohn began to write a piano sonata which five years later became one of her greatest large-scale works: her String Quartet in E-flat Major. Despite clear influences from Beethoven and her brother, the quartet exhibits its own unique tonal ambiguity and freedom of form, which Felix objected to. Fanny deeply valued Felix’s critiques—as he did hers—and her confidence in her ability to approach large-scale works was shaken by his criticism. It wasn’t until 13 years later that she wrote her next and last multi-movement work: the Piano Trio in D Minor.

concert details

”Equinox 4”
10 August 2024, 19:30
Musikhuset København

Program:
Gabriella Smith: Carrot Revolution (with choreography by Elenora Morris)
John Ireland: Sextet for clarinet, horn, and string quartet
Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-flat Major
Samuel Coleridge Taylor: Nonet: Gradus ad Parnassum