When I wrote about the Mendelssohn anniversary last year, I commented on the music of Fanny Hensel, Mendelssohn's sister, who showed great talent in her youth but suffered from the usual bias against female composers. "Music will perhaps become [Felix's] profession," her father wrote to her, "whilst for you it can and must only be an ornament, never the ground bass of your being and doing." Happily, over the next few days the Juilliard School will be correcting the injustice and giving attention to Hensel's work. The series is curated by Larry Todd, who wrote the definitive English-language life of Mendelssohn and recently produced a Hensel biography, from which I quote above. Tonight in Paul Hall, the Avenue 9 Trio will perform Hensel's Piano Trio in D Minor, which is the technical equal of her brother's chamber music and is in some ways more emotionally unrestrained. As Todd says, “There is the spark of genius in this music, marking her as a composer we should now recognize and celebrate.” Here's an excerpt from the Atlantis Trio's recording of the Trio:
Fanny Hensel Trio
