In 2005, the bicentenary year of Fanny Mendelssohn's birth, Christina
returned to the Purcell Room on the South Bank to perform Das Jahr,
the composer's musical portrait of a year spent in Italy.
This wonderful but neglected work was lovingly illustrated by Fanny
Mendelssohn's husband Wilhelm Hensel, Prussian court painter. The
composer prefaced each one of the pieces with a quote from works
by poets such as Goethe, Schiller and Uhland. Christina invited
the German tenor Norbert Meyn to read these short verses, and Wilhelm
Hensel's illustrations were projected above the piano. The performance
has been successfully adapted for smaller venues. Whitstable
Music Club kindly presented Christina with a facsimile score
of Das Jahr, which can be displayed in recital intervals.
To view the programme for the South Bank performance, click below.
The programme also included Schumann's Abegg Variations, and the
7 Fantasies op. 116 by Brahms. This concert took place under the
auspices of the South Bank's Fresh Young Musicians' Platform, in
association with Muso magazine.
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