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KAMMERORCHESTER BASEL at Edinburgh International Festival
August 20 | 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Two women composers of the Romantic era hold the spotlight in this imaginative concert of 19th-century music. The ‘fantastic’ (The Guardian) Kammerorchester Basel performs under the direction of Julia Schröder.
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was the older sister of composer Felix Mendelssohn. As a teenager, her piano teacher described her musical gift in a letter to the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Mendelssohn’s ‘oldest daughter could give you something of Sebastian Bach. This child is really something special.’
But at the age of 14, her father abruptly ended her music education. Yet, despite the discouragement of her family, Fanny never stopped composing. She wrote over 450 works in her lifetime, of which the sparkling Overture in C is her only purely orchestral work. The orchestra performs this alongside another rediscovered gem – the dramatic Fifth Symphony by prolific composer Emilie Mayer, who was described in her lifetime as ‘a female Beethoven’.
Acclaimed for her ‘thrilling, deeply personal brand of music-making’ (Classic FM), French pianist Hélène Grimaud also gives a heartfelt performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s poetic and playful Fourth Piano Concerto.
Image credits @ Mathias Mueller
