Fanny Mendelssohn - Easter Sonata

Fanny Mendelssohn (1805 - 1847) - Easter Sonata (1828) I. Allegro assai moderato [0:00] II. Largo e molto espressivo - Poco più mosso [5:22] III. Scherzo. Allegretto [9:35] IV. Allegro con strepito [13:47] Sofya Gulyak (2017) The Easter Sonata is a piano sonata in A major composed by Fanny Mendelssohn in 1828. It went unpublished and was lost for nearly 150 years, and when it was rediscovered in 1970, it was initially attributed to Felix Mendelssohn. Thanks to musicological work by Angela Mace Christian, it was determined in 2010 that the work was in fact composed by Fanny. The piece is in four movements and typically lasts around 21 minutes. “The Ostersonate, as suggested by its title, was begun around Easter 1828, in Berlin, and completed about six weeks later in June. Not every movement is overtly programmatic - the title is more atmospheric and chronological than it is prescriptive - but the sonata does exhibit several telling musical topoi of the Passion story. Already by 1828, the Mendelssohns were deep in rehearsals and preparations for the 1829 revival performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and it is clear that Bach’s Passion influenced Fanny’s Ostersonate in especially the pungent prelude and fugue in E minor (the second movement), as well as the evocation of the ’Earthquake’ topos in the fourth movement - rumbling tremolos in the bass. Beethoven, another particularly important compositional model for Fanny, is evident in the first movement; the lyrical turns and motivic development call to mind Beethoven’s late piano sonatas, here just a year after his death in 1827. The third movement is an effervescent but darkly tinged Scherzo - quintessentially ’Mendelssohnian’ - perhaps evoking the emergence of spring in April, May, and June, as well as the ideas of spiritual and physical rebirth in the Passion story. The stormy fourth movement, most likely a depiction of the crucifixion, gives way to a radiant fantasy on the Easter chorale, ’Christe, du Lamm Gottes’ (’Christ, thou Lamb of God’).“ (source: Angela Mace Christian) * Dr. Christian has generously made the sheet music freely available for download on her website: *