Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s sister, wrote music throughout her life. She originally published her songs and piano pieces under her brother’s name, but soon began to use her own name instead, confiding to her diary that “I cannot deny that the joy I derive in publishing my own music also increases my good humour”. Luckily for us, her great-granddaughter Fanny Kistner-Hensel gave G. Henle Verlag access to a previously unpublished selection of 11 piano pieces, and edited them herself from the autographs. After some early pieces focussing on piano instruction there follows a chronological sequence of personal character pieces such as the Notturno in g minor and “Abschied von Rom” [Departure from Rome], composed from the mid-1830s.
