The Mendelssohn Project


	Salon Concerts Since November of 2004, a primary element of The Mendelssohn Project has been its production and presentation of salon concerts – afternoons or evenings spent in some of New York City's most beautiful homes filled with the music of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. It was back in the 1830s that Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, having had her prodigious musical talent pushed to the background due to her role in the society of the time, developed an outlet for her musicianship. Fully supported in her efforts by her husband, Wilhelm Hensel, Fanny started inviting friends on Sunday afternoons to her lavish Berlin salon for a few hours of chamber music. This grew as a concept, and before long other women in the city also started doing the same and a tradition had been born. Recently, The Jewish Museum in New York City paid tribute to their salons with a stunningly beautiful exhibition. The Sunday afternoon salon concerts became a staple in Berlin, only to start to fade away shortly after the German Revolution. But in the mid-1830s, through the 1840s, the salon had become a primary gathering place for women and men to congregate in order to socialize and discuss the news of the world. But the main attraction of these events was being able to hear great musicians, in an intimate setting, play beloved works from the previous centuries, as well as premiere new compositions of the time, which included many by Fanny herself. The salon at Fanny Mendelssohn's was a fairly large room; so large in fact that a small orchestra and chorus could fit inside. It was actually in that salon, while rehearsing a chorus for a performance of her brother's secular oratorio Die erste Walpurgisnacht in 1847, that she suffered the stroke which would end her life. The Mendelssohn Project, in giving its salon concerts tries to recreate different programs which were performed in Fanny's salon. So far, TMP has focused on piano music – both for solo piano and for piano four-hands, lieder, and music for solo violin and piano. Upcoming concerts will be including music for string quartet, piano trio, and choral music. < Back

Salon Concerts

Since November of 2004, a primary element of The Mendelssohn Project has been its production and presentation of salon concerts – afternoons or evenings spent in some of New York City's most beautiful homes filled with the music of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn.

It was back in the 1830s that Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, having had her prodigious musical talent pushed to the background due to her role in the society of the time, developed an outlet for her musicianship. Fully supported in her efforts by her husband, Wilhelm Hensel, Fanny started inviting friends on Sunday afternoons to her lavish Berlin salon for a few hours of chamber music. This grew as a concept, and before long other women in the city also started doing the same and a tradition had been born. Recently, The Jewish Museum in New York City paid tribute to their salons with a stunningly beautiful exhibition.

The Sunday afternoon salon concerts became a staple in Berlin, only to start to fade away shortly after the German Revolution. But in the mid-1830s, through the 1840s, the salon had become a primary gathering place for women and men to congregate in order to socialize and discuss the news of the world. But the main attraction of these events was being able to hear great musicians, in an intimate setting, play beloved works from the previous centuries, as well as premiere new compositions of the time, which included many by Fanny herself.

The salon at Fanny Mendelssohn's was a fairly large room; so large in fact that a small orchestra and chorus could fit inside. It was actually in that salon, while rehearsing a chorus for a performance of her brother's secular oratorio Die erste Walpurgisnacht in 1847, that she suffered the stroke which would end her life.

The Mendelssohn Project, in giving its salon concerts tries to recreate different programs which were performed in Fanny's salon. So far, TMP has focused on piano music – both for solo piano and for piano four-hands, lieder, and music for solo violin and piano. Upcoming concerts will be including music for string quartet, piano trio, and choral music.

< Back