Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn: Sacred Music, Vol. 1

Featuring

Christina Landshamer
Martin Mitterrutzner
Minsub Hong
Andrew Redmond
Jonathan de la Paz Zaens
Justin Doyle

Franziska Markowitsch
Volker Nietzke
Stefan Drexlmeier
Kammerakademie Potsdam
RIAS Kammerchor
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Fanny Hensel

Did you know?

1/7

Critical Reception

Robert Schumann, a contemporary composer, reviewed Felix Mendelssohn's Psalm 42 with "verbal exuberance and unreserved admiration," calling it the highest level attained by modern sacred music.

Composition History

Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio Christus, left unfinished at his death, was intended to be part of a trilogy uniting the Old and New Testaments with his completed oratorios Paulus and Elias.

Composition History

Fanny Hensel's cantata Lobgesang was completed in June 1831 to celebrate the first birthday of her son, Sebastian, and uses the metaphor of childbirth to express pain turning into joy.

Historical Context

Felix Mendelssohn's career, spanning from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the Revolutions of March 1848, was deeply intertwined with the political and religious divisions of Germany.

Critical Reception

Fanny Hensel's impressive and mature music remains overshadowed by her famous brother's work, likely due to centuries of one-sided music historiography that confined women to piano playing rather than composing.

Composer Biography

Felix Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny Hensel (born Mendelssohn) received nearly identical musical training and shared a close relationship, with Felix promoting Fanny's pianistic talent and considering her compositional ambitions.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Felix Mendelssohn believed his church music should convey certainty of belief and be a confession of faith, not merely decorative or subordinate to the liturgy.