Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn
née 14.11.1805 in Hamburg, died on 14.5.1847 in Berlin
“Without a doubt, Fanny Hensel was the most important composer of the 19th century.” (MGG, Vol. 16)
Fanny Hensel grew up in a well-off and educated Berlin family. Early on, the banker Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy and his wife Lea also recognized Fanny’s extraordinary musical talent, so that Fanny, like her brother Felix, was taught by the best accessible teachers. Abraham Mendelssohn engaged Carl Friedrich Zelter, director of the Berliner Singakademie and friend of Goethe, for training in music theory and composition. Soon Fanny was known among the Mendelssohns’ circle of friends and acquaintances not only as an outstanding pianist, but also as a composer of songs and piano pieces.
In his obituary, published shortly after Fanny’s sudden death, the Berlin music critic Ludwig Rellstab writes that she shared with her famous brother “also the sisterhood of talent” and “reached a degree of education in music that not many artists for whom art is their exclusive profession in life can boast”. More than 250 works by Fanny Hensel have been published by Furore Verlag. More info here and here.