Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847)
Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 11

Mendelssohn completed this work in 1847. Its first performance was on April 11, 1847, at her home, with Mendelssohn herself at the piano, Robert von Keudell on violin and her brother Paul Mendelssohn on cello. Duration 29:00.

Background

Fanny Mendelssohn, older sister of Felix ((Felix Mendelssohn wrote the violin concerto performed by Katherine McLin on our September 8 concert. He also wrote the String Octet featured on our upcoming February 2 concert.)),  may have been every bit as talented as her famous brother.  When she was born, her mother Lea remarked that she had “Bach fugal fingers,” ((“Bach fugal fingers” refers J.S. Bach’s fugues for keyboard, which are extremely complex works of music that require independent dexterity of each finger. This would be a complement to any pianist.)) and young Fanny studied piano first with her mother. The family moved to Berlin in 1811, where the Mendelssohn family home became one of the social centers of the city’s music life, with visits by prominent musicians, and private concerts, usually including compositions and performances by the two Mendelssohn Wunderkinder ((Wunderkinder is German for “Child Prodigies”.)) . In 1819, the family hired a composition teacher, Carl Friedrich Zelter, to tutor both of them. Fanny Mendelssohn began composing at this time, and  continued throughout her life, eventually writing about 400 works: primarily piano and chamber works, and nearly 250 Lieder for solo voice and piano. She married painter William Hensel in 1829. Though her husband and brother continued to encourage her composition, she was held back by the culture of the day: upper-class married German women simply did not have professional careers, let alone careers in composition.  However, Fanny hosted a regular Sunday salón in her home that featured many of Germany’s landing musicians, and regularly showcased her works: the trio heard here was played at just such a Sunday performance, with her other younger brother, Paul, on cello.  Unlike Felix and Fanny, Paul Mendelssohn chose to follow the family business – banking — and though he became quite successful at it, he was a fine cellist throughout his life. The trio was apparently composed as a gift for her sister Rebecka, a fine singer, who would eventually take up hosting salón performances following Fanny’s death. Fanny Mendelssohn did eventually begin to publish some of her music in 1846, but this was cut short by her death after a series of strokes in 1847—just a month after the premiere of the Piano Trio. Much of her music remained unknown until the 20th century. The Piano Trio, Op.11, however, was published in 1850, just a few years after her death. 

What To Listen For

The Piano Trio is among the longest and most substantial works composed by Fanny Mendelssohn, and it has a particularly challenging and powerful piano part was undoubtedly written with her own skills as a pianist in mind.  This is clear at the beginning of the first movement ((A movement is a piece of music, usually with a clear beginning and end, that is grouped with other movements to create a larger work of a single name and intended to be performed . One might liken “movements” to tracks on an LP meant to be heard from beginning to end (as in the “larger work”),  like the Beatle’s Seargent Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band or Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.))  (Allegro molto vivace), where are the piano plays a tumultuous line against a simple main theme ((“Theme” is a chunk of music, usually a melody, which is used multiple times within a piece, either in its original form or in some modified but still recognizable form.)) played in unison by the strings. The cello introduces a flowing second theme above a shimmering piano part.  In a long section of development((“Development” means to take ideas from a theme and create new music by reusing elements of the original theme in new ways. Development helps create a sense of both interest and unity in a piece of music, for the listener will recognize these elements being reused in new ways.)), piano dominates the texture: A short solo piano flourish leads into a stormy section that ends with the return of the second theme.  In the second movement (Andante espressivo), Fanny takes the term “expressive” to heart, and lays out a sensitive “song without words” at the beginning, which the strings and piano extend.  Then comes a contrasting idea, another songlike theme played in turn by the piano, violin, and cello. She marks the third movement Lied: Allegretto, and the word Lied (song) is the perfect description of this music: a simple German folk song laid out by piano and strings and varied in several ways. The finale (Allegro moderato) begins with an introspective piano solo, which slyly works from earlier movements, before introducing a tragic main theme above piano flourishes. This is eventually joined by the strings, and violin introduces a second main idea.  In place of a development section, there is an extended quotation of music from the first movement. The music closes with an energetic restatement of the opening themes.