Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's Bach-Inspired Triumph: Klavierbuch in E minor (1827)

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Dear viewers, I didn’t want to distract from the full performance in the video today, but I also wanted to leave a few notes on the final movement, since I have not given a detailed breakdown of it yet. Feel free to check out my videos on the first 5 movements for more detailed analysis of each of these parts as well. You can find them on my Fanny Mendelssohn playlist here: kzbin.info/aero/PLK_TADsOo16hBve2WV-dhTiLaB2I9X6FK Fanny calls the final movement of this suite a “Toccata” but you might immediately notice a similarity to three highly varied works of J.S. Bach. The continual dotted rhythmic structure of the opening is reminiscent of the final gigue from Bach’s E minor Partita. That gigue, much like this toccata, is also in the form of a free fugue, and features a prominent inversion of the theme midway through the movement. In addition to that, the subject of Fanny’s Toccata is a 12-tone subject-it contains every note of the chromatic scale. Those familiar with the Well-Tempered Clavier will immediately think of the B minor Fugue subject from the 1st book, which has a similarly dour mood, and also covers all 12 available pitches. Finally, the relentless tremolo figuration which appears halfway through Fanny’s Toccata and ends up taking over the entire texture will no doubt remind some of you of the fugue from Bach’s E minor Toccata BWV 914. In that piece the tremolo figuration is part of the initial subject, but eventually becomes more and more oppressive and frenzied as the movement progresses. In Fanny’s piece, the tremolo appears as a new feature halfway through the movement, and ends up feeding into the relentless energy of the piece. The one thing that this movement shares with BWV 914 and the gigue from the E minor Partita is its relentless, unstoppable, driving energy, which pulls us along irresistibly from first note to last. There is no doubt in my mind that this suite was intended for integral performance, so effectively does the progression of mood lead through each movement to the grim, fateful finale. Although the musical influence is most notably from J.S. Bach, the actual structural makeup of the entire suite is perhaps more reminiscent of several of the great suites of Handel, eschewing dance numbers in favor of more abstract stylings, and with a prominent and extended fugue. Another small note-since the time I recorded the first five movements, I took a closer study of the manuscript for this suite in detail. You can find it here: digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PHYSID=PHYS_0093&PPN=PPN1013691423&DMDID=DMDLOG_0014 As result of that study, I have a few errata to note: In measure 21 of the 3rd movement, I would now choose to play C in the RH for the 7th and 10th 16ths, rather than C and A# or A# for both notes. Fanny originally had two A#s, but crossed out the first one and replaced it with C. She seemingly forgot to change the 2nd A#. I think 2 Cs here are much more convincing from an aural perspective. In the 4th movement I corrected the LH downbeat in measure 35 to an E, before realizing that Fanny had in fact crossed out an E and intentionally substituted a G here. In movement 6 starting in measure 68, I think the printed text for the only available edition (from henselpushers.org) is slightly incomplete. I believe that the LH in measure 68 should begin with E natural and G natural for the first 2 beats (thereby forming a diminished 7th chord) and that all of the Fs in measure 69 should be F naturals. This creates a series of diminished 7th harmonies from measures 68-70-this is probably what Fanny intended. The editors added one natural in measure 68. In the manuscript all of the naturals are missing, which I believe is an obvious error. It was very common for composers to leave out obvious accidentals when working rapidly, and that seems to have happened here. In fact, Fanny also left out all the F naturals in measure 70 as well, but here the editor has supplied them, since there can be no doubt whatsoever about the mistake. The above alterations are included in this performance of the 6th movement, but for all of the other movements I have left them as I initially recorded them-I will correct the other errors when I put out an audio edition of the first 5 movements. Thanks for listening, and as always, keep practicing!

[@sethmcgaw6712]

Thank you very much for providing much-needed ear-accessibility for some greatly neglected pieces, which luckily for me in this case contain many things I've been wishing I could play on my own, but just don't expect to ever be proficient enough for. I have been working on the middle Largo movement, which I take a little slower - but it's amazing to see what some tempi differences achieve for that piece, and that final cadence she wrote is breathtaking - I don't know how to analyze that sort of thing. It sounds terrific in your hands, as does the rest of the group. Thank you again. The published pieces she selected in the short publishing time available to her are of course great, but that iceberg of output that's hiding there seems to outshine (for me) her brother's stuff in its sheer originality and harmonic sense. And when I play through some of her last works from the 1840s (the more intermediate-level pieces, mind you, of which there still are quite a large amount) I hear a lot of what sounds remarkably like late Brahms, which makes one sort of wonder at the fact that Clara Schumann was close personal friends with Fanny during the last couple of years of her life, and whether Brahms might've thereby learned about one Fanny and then snuck some ideas from thereabouts. But you're right on your other video, about Henselpushers being a treasure trove... I would love to hear your take, for instance, on some of the pieces on that site which don't have any existent recordings yet (on KZbin or Amazon at least) - I noticed they have a youtube channel where they uploaded some of these among others (some examples would be H.391, 405 or 410) - the uploaded music is just a computer-software midi version, but even with the soulless computer approach you immediately sense you're hearing masterpieces - a phenomenon which I seem to keep coming across in her stuff. But just the fact that these masterpieces are sitting out there unrecorded is astonishing to me, and really should be remedied. Thank you for helping to get the ball rolling with this wonderful performance.

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Great ideas! I already was planning on doing some more of her music, and I’ll take a look at the specific pieces you mention.

[@vivianagalli4281]

Eccellente interpretazione di pezzi sconosciuti 😊

[@joanneswets.]

Congratulations Cole on completing and publishing the first recording of Fanny Hensel's entire E minor suite on the world wide web! And what kind! Big appreciation from my side!

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Thanks Joanne! Much appreciate your kind words as always :-)

[@grahamtwist]

This 'integral performance' of all six magnificent movements of Fanny's masterpiece suite is stunning, Cole: B R A V O ! It certainly seems to be the case that the music of Bach held Fanny in good stead throughout her life (as it did Felix). I am in awe thinking of how, at just thirteen, she was able to commit to memory much of the 'Well-Tempered Clavier' for the delectation of her parents, clearly absorbing the intricacies of Bach’s style into her maturing compositional style. I have read Fanny actually worked on seven movements for the suite and that how far she was prepared to enter into the high temple of baroque counterpoint is evident from the final sketch recorded at the end of her Klavierbuch (the opening of another E minor fugue with a recherché subject, which begins by spelling a whole-tone scale, thus exceeds the conventional limits of E minor! It is claimed that this composition would have been considerably more abstruse and experimental than any fugal subject Felix ever attempted. But she pulled back from the brink, deferring to Felix’s engagement with the St. Matthew Passion, to allow the Bachian phoenix, as she would describe it, to rise again. Deferring, as ever, to the opposite sex!)

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing Graham. It seems like I always learn something new from your comments. Just curious, where did you find this information? I’d be curious as I would definitely be in the market for a good scholarly work that covers Fanny’s work. Thanks as always!

[@grahamtwist]

@@TheIndependentPianist I have emailed you a copy of the document I was looking at. Enjoy!

[@johnrock2173]

Absolutely fascinating piece. Such a great service you're providing not only in performance but in analysis. I'm so glad I'm able to patreon you!!!!! Thankyou as always.

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Thanks for your support!!

[@WaltzTime]

What a gorgeous piece!

[@jayinvariant7095]

Fantastic to hear this music given life and nourishment. I hope (and think) we'll see many more performances, but now and forever, this is the one that makes the difference. Thank you for making it happen

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Thank you so much!

[@fergusbyett8088]

Epic!!

[@onkarlally]

Misclicking on this video is maybe the best thing to happen to me all day.

[@neilkilleen3911]

Hi Cole - very cool piece and performance, thank you. I notice in places (in the first half) you are (I think ) deliberately misaligning LH and RH. Why did you do that for this particular piece ? Was it to bring out certain voices ? I’ve been working on some Rachmaninov which of course is full of inner voices and I try hard to do this by weighting not timing - I think it sounds better.

[@TheIndependentPianist]

I do enjoy using this kind of "asynchronization" in my playing sometimes. In this case I probably did use this technique in the fugue to make voice leading clearer. Making voice leading clear through only dynamic balance is also very important of course. It's funny you should mention Rachmaninoff, since he was an absolute master of the asynchronized way of playing himself! There is of course no reason why you can't play his music without that effect, but it seems sometimes like he almost wrote the music with that in mind. But some pianists very much prefer a more "solid" sound in which chords are always played exactly together. Arthur Rubinstein and Wilhelm Backhaus come immediately to mind as exemplars of that style, so you are in great company!

[@neilkilleen3911]

@@TheIndependentPianist oh that’s funny, I clearly need to listen to more of Mr R playing. I find the balanced approach seriously difficult, but have been pleased to make some progress on doing so in the last few months with Mr R’s musical help. I remember a concert where Jorge Bolet used the asynchronous approach and the nasty reviewer was very rude about it saying he was old fashioned. That concert introduced me to the Liszt Petrarch sonnets which have nurtured me for 30 years !

[@thenotsookayguy]

Largo sounds familiar.

[@TheIndependentPianist]

If you think of what it reminds you of, let me know!

[@Whatismusic123]

This piece is terrible, but what a great performance! Edit: check out Joseph Wölfl's sonata in C minor op 25, it is quite similar, but does it alot better.

[@TheIndependentPianist]

I'll certainly check out the piece you recommend, but I strongly disagree with your notion that this piece is terrible. You are welcome to your opinion, but it would be better to acknowledge that you simply do not like the piece. I do thank you for your complimentary comment about my performance, but I hope you will understand that the off-handed, dismissive comment about a piece that I love and admire sours any positive impression I might receive from your comment.

[@thenotsookayguy]

​@@TheIndependentPianistWhatIsMusic goes around every where saying such and such is terrible. I wouldn't take anything they say seriously.

[@TheIndependentPianist]

@@thenotsookayguy Good to know, thanks!