David Temple conducts the Crouch End Festival Chorus and London Mozart Players with a formidable group of soloists on this album celebrating the works of the siblings Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Hensel (nee Mendelssohn). Fanny’s cantata Hiob, based on the Book of Job, is the second of three cantatas composed between February and November 1831, although it remained unpublished until 1992. Later in her short career, encouraged by her brother and her friend Robert von Keudell, Fanny did begin to publish her works. The Gartenlieder, Op. 3 for unaccompanied choir were composed in 1846, and inspired by the gardens and summerhouse at the family’s Leipzigerstraße residence, in Berlin, where she held her choir rehearsals. Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht is a secular cantata, a setting of the poem by Goethe, originally performed in 1831. Mendelssohn revised the work extensively in 1843, and it is this later version that is performed here. His Christmas cantata Vom Himmel hoch, based on a Lutheran chorale, was completed in 1831.

With the present programme we want to explore the history of the German Lied throughout a period spanning some 800 years, from that first light of dawn represented by the earliest music scored with modern notation - courtly love songs by Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230) and Oswald von Wolkenstein (1377-1445) - down to such present-day emissaries of the Lied tradition as Aribert Reimann and Wolfgang Rihm. In between we find: J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Hensel, Wolf, Berg, and Eisler.

The Chaos String Quartet, named BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for 2023-2025, was founded in 2019 based on the principles of chaos in art, science, and philosophy. Having won such prestigious international competitions as ARD (2022), Bordeaux (2022), Bad Tölz (2023), and Haydn (2023), the ensemble is rapidly gaining prominence on the international stage, most notably performing at the Musikverein Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bozar (Brussels), and Philharmonie de Paris. Other awards include prizes at the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival 2023, the Bartók World Competition 2021, and the International Premio V. E. Rimbotti in Italy 2020. In addition to its classical concert activities, the quartet is dedicated to developing projects that make the quartet repertoire more accessible and open to a wider audience.

The ensemble completed its studies at the mdw, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, supervised by their mentor Prof. Johannes Meissl, and completed a postgraduate course at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole with the Cuarteto Casals. The young musicians received further important musical impulses from artists such as Eberhard Feltz, András Keller, Oliver Wille, and Helmut Lachenmann.

This is the ensemble's first CD on the label of the mdw in Vienna, under the label management of Solo Musica. Works by Joseph Haydn, György Ligeti, and Fanny Hensel were recorded.

“Oh, do it Clara darling!” said Robert Schumann to his bride Clara, strongly encouraging her to pursue composing. Although the pianist had always composed, when she married in 1840 – without being asked to – she was immediately willing to dispense with this part of her musical output: “A woman does not have to desire to compose – so far not one has been able to do so; should that be what I am destined to do?” Clara is caught up in a crisis and feels resigned: “But I cannot compose…I lack all talent for it.” Only after the wedding did Clara return to composing. As long as her father or husband encouraged her to do so, in her consummate adaptability she did so with joy. But after Robert’s death in 1856, Clara stopped composing entirely.

It does not appear that the Mendelssohns were able to enjoy Heine’s kinder side. Although Heine was sometimes a visitor at their home in Berlin, somehow friendly relations did not develop. However, the poet Heine held Fanny in high regard. She had already set his poems “Was will die einsame Träne” (Why this solitary tear) and “Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen” (On a radiant summer morning) to music in 1827/28. Her song setting of Heine’s “Schwanenlied” (Song of the swan) – was her first published work, but this only happened in 1846. At first Fanny chose to set poems by her bridegroom Wilhelm to music, of which she had already composed “Lebewohl” (Farewell) the same year they met and before the wedded couple were separated for a long period. Upon getting married she, too, began a busy and fruitful artistic collaboration that involved the daily morning ritual of Wilhelm leaving poems on the piano for her to set to music.

Pianist Sophia Weidemann and actress Tinka Kleffner present a musical-literary encounter with the exceptional composer Fanny Hensel in their new GENUIN album, "Das Jahr" (The Year). The album includes a remarkable piano cycle along with letters and diary entries to and by Hensel. Through their interpretation, these two highly acclaimed artists offer a high-level, intimate glimpse into the life and work of one of the most significant 19th-century female composers and enlightened thinkers, Fanny Hensel. Hensel's piano cycle covers a whole year, and the chosen and thoughtfully read excerpts mirror the emotionally rich and skillfully constructed music in the most delightful way!

When Fanny Hensel, nee Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the wife of the Prussian court painter Wilhelm Hensel, died unexpectedly on 14 May 1847 at the age of 41 as a result of a stroke, the music writer and poet Ludwig Rellstab coined the beautiful phrase that she "also shared the sisterhood of talent with her famous brother".

This assertion has only recently been recognised in its full significance. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's eldest sister, granddaughter of the philosopher and Lessing's friend Moses Mendelssohn, niece of the scandal-ridden Dorothea Schlegel, was not only a musical prodigy, an outstanding pianist and conductor, her brother's closest confidante and advisor and a brilliant writer of letters, but also "the most important female composer of the 19th century" (Franz Krautwurst). Jahrhunderts" (Franz Krautwurst in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Supplement, article Fanny Hensel, 1979).

The present CD offers mostly first recordings of some piano compositions, primarily works that were published by the composer herself, and thus helps to gain a more differentiated picture of the creative abilities of this unusual woman.

Sontraud Speidel studied with Irene Slavin and Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen in Karlsruhe, with Branka Musulin in Frankfurt, with Stefan Askenase in Brussels and Géza Anda in Lucerne. She has been honored several times in national and international competitions. At the age of 16 she was awarded the 1st Prize of the Federal Republic of Germany, with the 1st Prize at the Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Washington, USA, with the Jackson Prize of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Interpretation of New Music and with Ettore-Pozzoli Prize, Italy. Recitals, concerts with orchestra, appearances at festivals, chamber concerts as well as radio recordings and masterclasses took her all over Europe, the USA, Canada, Israel, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Brazil and Morocco. On her new release she presents a program of works by Fanny Hensel.