Fanny Mendelssohn (married name Hensel) (1805-1847) was the older sister of Felix and essentially received the same extraordinarily intense musical education that he did.  She was a very fine pianist and one of her only public performances was of her brother’s highly demanding Piano Concerto No. 1.  

She composed over 450 works, the vast majority of them songs.  Yet, her position as the daughter of a wealthy banker and the resulting constricting gender role as daughter, wife, and mother relegated her efforts as composer and performer to house concerts.  Her father felt that Felix had a profession as a musician, but that musicality could only be an “ornament” in Fanny’s life.  This attitude was even extended to the point that it wasn’t thought wise before her marriage to have her songs published in her name.  Their quality was so high that Felix published several under his name.  When Queen Victoria proposed singing her favorite song of Felix’s, he felt compelled to tell her that the song was actually composed by his sister Fanny.

Fanny wrote her Overture in C Major sometime between 1830 and 1832. It was designed to be played in the family’s glittering salon. Two years after its premiere, Fanny conducted a second performance. She later wrote to Felix:

Had I not been so shy, and embarrassed with every stroke, I would’ve been able to conduct reasonably well. It was great fun to hear the piece for the first time in two years and find everything the way I remembered…I took part in an unexpected pleasure. 

The piece languished, undiscovered, in a library for more than 100 years after her death. The Overture is in sonata form with a slow introduction.  Fanny was once complimented that she played piano, “like a man.”  The astounding energy of the principal theme may show that creatively, she was also able to burst away from her constricting social role.

Program Note by IPO Board Member 
Charles Amenta, M.D