The deadline for the WPA Performance Grants is next week! Our latest installment in suggested repertoire brings us to Fanny Hensel (nee Mendelssohn).
Hensel is one of the few historic women who have a chance of being included in a music history textbook. (If only as a footnote to her brother Felix.) Her story is not an uncommon one – she was trained musically but prevented from performing outside the home or publishing any of her compositions. Hensel worked around the restrictions her family put in place by hosting musical salons in her home where she could not only perform, but premiere new compositions. Though she wrote extensively for piano and chamber ensembles, she did compose a handful of works for orchestra, including her Overture.
Here is The Women’s Philharmonic performing Hensel’s Overture (you can buy the recording here):
A perfect addition to a concert including the works of her brother. Parts are available through Furore Verlag.