2. Classical Music on Sunday

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and his sister Fanny Hensel are among the dream teams of the classical music world. They spent their childhood and youth making music together and studying under Carl Friedrich Zelter, the music teacher and founder of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin.

However, the older these two musical child prodigies grew, the more their paths diverged due to social conventions. Whilst Felix made his public début as a pianist and composer and caused a sensation with, amongst other things, the rediscovery of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Fanny’s musical activities, as a woman composer, were confined to the private sphere.

Despite her family’s support, she was not afforded the opportunity to perform in public. Nevertheless, she too composed works of the highest quality, such as the Overture in C major for Orchestra – a radiant work featuring flowing melodies, an interplay between strings and wind instruments, and harmonic subtleties.

Together with her brother’s Romantic Symphony No. 1, which remains rooted in the Viennese Classical tradition, the music of the Mendelssohn family’s child prodigies takes centre stage at this concert. The programme is complemented by the work of another child prodigy. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds and Orchestra offers four musicians from the BSOF the opportunity to shine as soloists. Musically, the third movement in particular, with its theme and ten variations, captivates audiences with its exuberance and inventiveness.

Having entered the public consciousness as child prodigies, all three – Fanny, Felix and Wolfgang Amadeus – continued to make their mark as musical geniuses in adulthood, moving and delighting audiences alike with their works.