Fanny Mendelssohn was a German composer and pianist of the early Romantic era who was known as Fanny Hensel after her marriage. Her compositions include a piano trio, a piano quartet, an orchestral overture, four cantatas, more than 125 pieces for the piano and over 250 lieder, most of which were unpublished in her lifetime. Although lauded for her piano technique, she rarely gave public performances outside her family circle.
Fanny Hensel, 1842, by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim
Carl Friedrich Zelter – portrait by Carl Begas (1827)
Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy, as drawn by Fanny's husband Wilhelm Hensel
Felix Mendelssohn aged 12 (1821) by Carl Begas
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio St. Paul, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, the mature Violin Concerto, the String Octet, and the melody used in the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.
Portrait from 1846
Felix Mendelssohn aged 12 (1821) by Carl Joseph Begas
First page of the manuscript of Mendelssohn's Octet (1825) (now in the US Library of Congress)
The composer's study in Mendelssohn House, a museum in Leipzig