Chelsea Music Festival: Das Jahr—Twelve Months Personified

This evening features pianists playing “Das Jahr” (“The Year’“), a groundbreaking twelve-part piano suite based on the months of the year written by Fanny Mendelssohn (m. Hensel).  Das Jahr is one of Fanny’s most sparkling piano compositions, written in the year after Fanny and her family spent an extensive stay in Rome.  The manuscript was a collaboration between Fanny and her husband, the painter Wilhelm Hensel, whose rich yet delicate illustrations illuminate Fanny’s impression of each month.

“Now I’m doing another little piece of work that gives me a lot of fun; it’s a series of 12 clavier pieces which shall symbolize the 12 months of the year.”   
-Fanny Hensel