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» Add News | Fanny Mendelssohn
Fanny Cécilie Mendelssohn's father, Abraham, was a prosperous banker. When Napoleon's troops occupied Hamburg in 1811, the Jewish
familyrelocatedto Berlin. There, in 1816, Fanny and her younger brother Felix were baptized as Lutherans. The two talented youngsters were brought up
inanexceptionally stimulating atmosphere and both became highly accomplished composers and pianists. Based on contemporary accounts and
hermusic,she had talents as a composer that were fairly comparable to those of her brother. However, her father opposed a professional career
asunsuitable for ayoung gentlewom ...read more
Fanny Cécilie Mendelssohn's father, Abraham, was a prosperous banker. When Napoleon's troops occupied Hamburg in 1811, the Jewish
familyrelocatedto Berlin. There, in 1816, Fanny and her younger brother Felix were baptized as Lutherans. The two talented youngsters were brought up
inanexceptionally stimulating atmosphere and both became highly accomplished composers and pianists. Based on contemporary accounts and
hermusic,she had talents as a composer that were fairly comparable to those of her brother. However, her father opposed a professional career
asunsuitable for ayoung gentlewoman. Felix carried on this opposition after their father's death.
At the age of 17 she fell in love with a struggling painter, Wilhelm Hensel. After some years of familiar opposition due to his lack of wealth,
theyweremarried and moved into a house in the family compound. In 1839 and 1840 the couple visited Italy. There Fanny found herself the center of a
circleofyoung musicians who admired her music. She blossomed under this attention and composed with renewed confidence. She wrote piano
music,oratorios,and chamber music. In the mid-1840s she informed her brother that she intended to begin to publish her music and he apparently
droppedhisopposition. However, at about that time she began to suffer recurrent nosebleeds, which we recognize now as a sign of high blood pressure.
On May16,1847, while rehearsing a performance of one of Felix's oratorios, she felt her hands go numb, then fell over, struck by a fatal stroke. Her
music neverhadits just debut during her lifetime and much of it remained unheard and unpublished. It was only in the late 1900s that recordings brought
evidence ofherexceptional gifts as a composer to the general public. « hide |
Similar Bands: Felix Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Louise Farrenc, Amy Beach Contributors: Doctuses, Sowing,
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