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Written by Bill Hemminger
OVERTURE IN C
FANNY MENDELSSOHN-HENSEL
Duration: 10 Minutes
Equally as talented as her brother Felix, Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-47) was a German pianist and composer in the early Romantic era. The two prodigies were afforded the best musical instruction of the time, and later Felix admitted that his sister had become a better pianist than he. Fanny married painter Wilhelm Hensel in 1829 and spent years travelling with him. Upon the death of her mother, Fanny took over management of the family household in Berlin, which included organizing concerts and entertaining public figures. She lived in Berlin from 1842 until her untimely death from a stroke in 1847; her early death greatly affected her brother Felix and undoubtedly contributed to his early death some months later.
As a woman in the strict social hierarchy of the time, Fanny Mendelssohn was unable to pursue a professional musical career as performer or composer. Fanny’s father stated that a musical vocation, “could never be more than an ornament” for his daughter. Yet, she penned more than 500 compositions, including tonight’s Overture in C, her only work for orchestra alone and frequently performed in house concerts.
The Overture in C is not unlike many other overtures of the time: expressive music attached to no particular story or visual cue. The work begins with a slow introduction of horns, strings, and woodwinds. Then the overture takes
off, a dazzling display of the composer’s ability to make use of the entire sound palette of the orchestra. Sadly, the work was not published in Mendelssohn-Hensel’s lifetime. It was resurrected in 1992 and has been popular ever since.