Fanny Hensel

Fanny Hensel (1805-1847), born Mendelssohn, was one of the most talented female composers of the Romantic period and an important representative of 19th century German musical life. As the sister of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, she grew up in an artistic environment that encouraged her musical development from an early age, but also confronted her with social restrictions due to her gender. In the 1830s and 1840s in particular, Fanny Hensel composed a large number of songs, piano and choral works and - despite the reservations of her father and brother - ultimately decided to gradually publish her music. In her family home in Berlin, a centre for musicians and intellectuals, she performed many of these works, which combine romantic emotionality with tonal sophistication, as part of the so-called Sunday music. On 14 May 1847, she suffered a stroke during rehearsals for one of her popular Sunday concerts and died just a few hours later. Her impressive œuvre, which comprises more than 460 compositions, is today regarded as a significant contribution to Romantic musical culture and is attracting increasing attention in concerts and academic studies.