1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:27,120 (BIRDS CHIRPING) (DISTANT CLIP-CLOP OF HORSES) 4 00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:32,560 (DISTANT BELLS RINGING) 5 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:36,520 (BIG BEN CHIMES) 6 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:43,400 (HORSE NEIGHING) 7 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:49,840 SHEILA HAYMAN: Buckingham Palace, London, 1842. 8 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:52,640 (BIG BEN BONGS) 9 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:03,560 SHEILA: 'The superstar German composer, Felix Mendelssohn, 10 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:06,120 is invited here to play his famous songs.' 11 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:08,400 (BELLS CHIMING) 12 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:14,600 (WOMAN SINGING) 13 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:17,320 14 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:20,760 15 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:24,520 SHEILA: 'The singer is Queen Victoria herself.' 16 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:27,400 17 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:31,920 'And the song she chooses as her favourite is called Italien. 18 00:01:31,960 --> 00:01:34,080 It's a huge honour for Felix.' 19 00:01:35,320 --> 00:01:38,280 Swelling with juice 20 00:01:38,320 --> 00:01:41,960 Storrische Kraft 21 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:46,040 You're blonde, you're brown 22 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:47,720 23 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:49,880 'But Felix has a problem. 24 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,240 He didn't actually write this song. 25 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:00,400 It was composed by his sister, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. 26 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:07,040 Fanny was my great-great-great grandmother 27 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:10,160 but I knew very little about her musical genius. 28 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,280 Her story had been overshadowed by her brother 29 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,760 and overlooked by a male-dominated musical world. 30 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:18,400 But looking for clues, 31 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:20,840 I discovered she has nine Twitter accounts. 32 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:24,600 Unusual for somebody who's been dead for 175 years. 33 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:28,960 So, I realised I wasn't the only person interested in her.' 34 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:31,000 Third clap. 35 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:34,040 Roland Schmidt-Hensel in the Staatsbibliothek. 36 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:36,880 'And I discovered an army of fans 37 00:02:36,920 --> 00:02:39,880 determined to rescue her from oblivion.' 38 00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:43,440 They have all of these, yes. Oh, that's amazing. 39 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:46,160 ROBERT LEHMAN: Wow. 40 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:48,880 What is THAT? 41 00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:51,440 Holy crap. 42 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:53,400 I've never heard anything like it. 43 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:57,800 ISATA KANNEH-MASON: I imagine her to have been 44 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:00,400 very stubborn, thinking, you know, "This is how I feel. 45 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,560 This is what I want to write." And not being held back 46 00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:06,040 and just writing something really expressive. 47 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,600 'The search for Fanny took me from London to Berlin, 48 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:12,160 and Paris to New York. 49 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:15,360 And revealed the hunt for a long-lost masterpiece, 50 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:17,640 the Easter Sonata. 51 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:22,960 I discovered a story of intense sibling drama, joy and tragedy. 52 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:27,320 A woman who defied convention but dared not defy her family. 53 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:33,320 This is Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, a very modern woman, 54 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:36,600 who just happened to live two centuries ago.' 55 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:38,280 (SWEEPING PIANO NOTES) 56 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,160 TIM PARKER-LANGSTON: Every time she sat down to write, 57 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,560 she was doing so in a sort of creative vacuum. 58 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:49,520 The idea of what a composer was, was exclusively male. 59 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:52,360 A composer was a man who wrote music. 60 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:57,000 She wanted to be a good wife, a good daughter, 61 00:03:57,040 --> 00:03:58,920 a good sister, a good mother. 62 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:03,320 At the same time, there was this fire burning inside her, 63 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:06,600 intellectual, rigorous, critical, creative. 64 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:09,000 That is what gets me every time with Fanny. 65 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:12,800 (DRAMATIC PIANO CHORDS) 66 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:19,320 (SOMBRE MUSIC) 67 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:25,560 SHEILA: 'When I began looking for Fanny, 68 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:27,680 all I had of her was this music stand 69 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:30,520 and the painting of her music room where it stood. 70 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:37,600 I realised I didn't even know what she looked like.' 71 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:40,240 Did she look like this? 72 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:42,040 Or this? 73 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:43,560 Or this? 74 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:47,280 They're all radically different from each other, these pictures. 75 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:49,720 'There were no photos in those days. 76 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:53,000 Most of the pictures we have of her are imaginary ideals, 77 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:55,280 not real people. 78 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:56,840 Including these ones, 79 00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:00,320 which put her firmly in her place as her brother's support act. 80 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:03,960 Even the official portrait isn't accurate. 81 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,080 She was horribly short sighted. 82 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:10,520 And none of them shows her as a musician. 83 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:11,920 That side of Fanny, 84 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:16,040 as for creative women throughout history, was just painted out. 85 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:19,200 So, my job seemed clear, 86 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:21,880 to find Fanny, the musical genius, 87 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:24,920 and give her the recognition she has always deserved. 88 00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:32,400 The first Mendelssohn was the famous philosopher 89 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:34,800 of the German Enlightenment, Moses. 90 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:38,240 His son Abraham had four children, 91 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:41,280 including the Mendelssohn we've all heard of, Felix. 92 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:47,600 Fanny's born in 1805 and Felix three years later. 93 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:49,520 From the start, they're inseparable.' 94 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:51,560 (PIANO PLAYING) (DISTANT CHATTER) 95 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:56,760 SARAH ROTHENBERG: She and Felix and all of the children 96 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:01,320 really took great fun in coming up with nicknames for people, 97 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:03,480 making fun of people socially. 98 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:05,520 I mean, there was tremendous laughter 99 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:08,360 and fun in the household. You get that sense all the time. 100 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:14,240 Yeah! 101 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:16,200 (DRUM ROLL) 102 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:17,800 (CYMBAL CRASH) 103 00:06:17,840 --> 00:06:20,880 'But the thing that's central to both their lives is music.' 104 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:22,720 (PIANO PLAYING) 105 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:27,720 'They are two prodigies who live and breathe it together 106 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:31,480 and for the first few years they're taught together as well. 107 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:34,760 Both dreaming of their future musical careers.' 108 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:39,320 Fanny's musically brilliant and Felix is musically brilliant 109 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:40,840 but she's three years older 110 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,360 and of course, as children that means a lot. 111 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:48,520 So, she has almost a parental kind of relationship to Felix 112 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:52,360 with music and it's something that they developed together. 113 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:56,080 (TRIUMPHANT ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) (HOOVES CLIP-CLOPPING) 114 00:06:57,400 --> 00:06:59,480 (DOG BARKING) (HORSE NEIGHING) 115 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,280 'Their father, Abraham, is a wealthy banker 116 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,360 who converts the family from Judaism to Christianity, 117 00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:08,840 adds the Protestant surname Bartholdy, 118 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:12,040 and moves them into this enormous Berlin mansion. 119 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:15,200 All to cement the family's reputation in society.' 120 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:19,880 Their place in European society was really a new one. 121 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:21,960 The conversion from Judaism 122 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:26,200 was a way of becoming a modern European citizen. 123 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:29,280 And the family had become extremely wealthy, 124 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:32,520 so they were entering into a social world 125 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:36,040 that Jews were not frequently in before. 126 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:38,400 And so, as a result, they were extremely careful 127 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:41,400 about what was proper, what was not proper. 128 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:48,520 129 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:52,920 130 00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:56,400 'What's proper for young ladies at this time is 'Lieder,' 131 00:07:56,440 --> 00:07:59,080 lyrical songs with keyboard accompaniment, 132 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:01,720 that Fanny and her sister Rebecka, a singer, 133 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:03,320 can perform in private, 134 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:05,800 without damaging the family's reputation. 135 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:08,600 So from the beginning, 136 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:11,440 this is where Fanny pours her creative energies.' 137 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:14,120 Fanny, as a child, 138 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:17,880 really wanted to fulfil the ideals of her father, 139 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:20,640 of her brother, of what it meant to be a woman. 140 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:23,680 She always wanted to please, always wanted to succeed. 141 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,640 She presents a composition of a song 142 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:28,200 to Abraham for his birthday. 143 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:31,200 I think she internalises all of this. 144 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:34,800 PARKER-LANGSTON: I'm going to begin where she did. 145 00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:36,520 This is her first known composition 146 00:08:36,560 --> 00:08:39,200 and this is essentially her version of "Happy Birthday". 147 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:40,760 It's quite different. 148 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:43,800 I'm going to just sing to you the first section of that. 149 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:51,680 (SINGING IN GERMAN) 150 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:45,560 (FAST PIANO SOLO) (INDISTINCT CHATTER) 151 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:47,720 'But as Fanny enters her teens, 152 00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:51,080 she begins to be excluded from Felix's musical education. 153 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:56,320 And when she's 14, her father writes her a letter 154 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:59,280 making clear that her future is to be very different 155 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:00,440 from her brother's.' 156 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:07,400 "Music will perhaps become his profession, 157 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:10,240 while for you it can and must be only an ornament, 158 00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:12,600 never the foundation of your life. 159 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:14,520 Your joy when he is praised 160 00:10:14,560 --> 00:10:16,400 proves that you might, in his place, 161 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:18,800 have deserved the same approval. 162 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:21,560 Stay true to these values and this behaviour. 163 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:23,240 They are feminine. 164 00:10:23,280 --> 00:10:26,320 And only the truly feminine is appropriate to women." 165 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:28,240 (DRAMATIC PIANO ENDING) 166 00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:33,040 Abraham at this point is saying to her, 167 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:36,760 from now on she is not going to have the same life as Felix, 168 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:38,680 she is going to be a woman, 169 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:40,480 she's going to do things that women do. 170 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:42,360 She is allowed to cheer him on 171 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:44,400 and she's probably allowed to help him, 172 00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:46,600 but she's not allowed to have a career in music. 173 00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:51,200 She's terrified of her father because he's a German father, 174 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:55,480 and she's a young lady and because the year is 1819. 175 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:57,960 And you do not go against your father's wishes. 176 00:10:59,920 --> 00:11:01,840 'She won't defy her father. 177 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:05,480 But, even at 14, she won't give up composing either. 178 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:11,560 This is the beginning of a balancing act 179 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:13,400 that will last all Fanny's life. 180 00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:15,720 But at that time, 181 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:19,280 music by women wasn't thought to have any value. 182 00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:21,840 So what survives was buried in archives 183 00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:23,200 or forgotten in attics. 184 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:27,120 Until the 1970s, 185 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:30,280 when a new generation of feminist scholars 186 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:32,400 went looking for traces of Fanny.' 187 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:41,200 MARCIA CITRON: She fascinated me. 188 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:46,640 I got very interested in her, the quality of her music. 189 00:11:46,680 --> 00:11:49,360 I knew that there was a lot there 190 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:50,760 that hadn't been looked at 191 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:53,160 at the Staatsbibliothek, 192 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:55,800 at what was then West Berlin. 193 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:59,160 And when I went to the library, it was a shock. 194 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:02,520 There was a functionary who was there at the table 195 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:04,920 and I had the feeling talking to him 196 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:09,480 that he had just about no respect for me. 197 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:12,720 Women were not studied much at that point, 198 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:17,440 he hadn't encountered anybody who was interested in Fanny Hensel. 199 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:20,520 She wasn't important. She was nothing like Felix. 200 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:25,880 I did have the feeling there was a whole lot more 201 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:29,200 in the way of other kinds of material, 202 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:32,080 letters, diaries, 203 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:35,720 but there was no way to know what was there. 204 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:42,520 What he said I could do is copy out by hand in pencil. 205 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:49,600 That summer I copied out maybe 12 or 15 songs. 206 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:55,600 And so, the next summer I went back. 207 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:57,320 Let's see. 208 00:12:57,360 --> 00:13:02,000 I got about 50 more songs. 209 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:03,600 How long did that take you? 210 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:06,600 Oh, I don't know, weeks, weeks and weeks. 211 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:08,360 Three or four weeks I was there. 212 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:11,120 But how did it feel to be the first person 213 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:15,000 for maybe 140 years to actually be interested? 214 00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:18,160 It must have been extraordinary. It was extraordinary. 215 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:21,440 I think, probably, though, I was so focused on, 216 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:23,480 "I need to get this done." 217 00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:27,040 (MUSIC FADES OUT) 218 00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:32,280 '50 years on, 219 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:35,280 Marcia's pioneering work remained unfinished 220 00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:37,080 and Fanny largely unknown 221 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:39,800 until one young singer took up the challenge.' 222 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:44,840 I'm ashamed to say that, before 2020, 223 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:49,560 I actually had never heard of Fanny as a person, 224 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:50,920 as a composer. 225 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:53,720 She wasn't someone that I was even aware existed 226 00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:55,240 until the lockdown. 227 00:13:55,280 --> 00:14:00,800 And it was during that time I started looking at composers 228 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:05,880 whose songs had maybe been less well known 229 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:08,080 and I began with her brother, Felix. 230 00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:12,560 But I then read about this elder sister, Fanny, 231 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:16,000 who had written nearly 250 songs. 232 00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:18,240 And it was within a couple of minutes 233 00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:20,720 of being sat at the piano with one of her scores, 234 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:22,680 I was absolutely blown away. 235 00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:28,160 It wasn't long until I discovered that nearly 100 songs 236 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:31,720 there still weren't scores available in print. 237 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:37,640 So I decided that that was what my task was going to be, 238 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:39,240 to get them all out there 239 00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:42,320 so that would never be the case again. 240 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:44,760 This is the first one, so you have three titles. 241 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:47,160 Wow, amazing. 242 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:49,720 I can help you load up if you wish. 243 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:52,200 Yeah, thank you very much, let's do it. 244 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:54,680 Yeah, we're good. We're gonna be good. 245 00:14:54,720 --> 00:14:56,880 Huzzah. 246 00:14:56,920 --> 00:14:58,080 Purpose made. Yeah. 247 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:01,200 Fits in. 248 00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:02,480 It's a lot of music. 249 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:11,440 I think there's something about 250 00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:14,520 this being an actual object, an artefact. 251 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:18,600 The only kind of remnants we have of Fanny's musical life 252 00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:22,160 are a handful of letters and diaries 253 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:24,080 and then her original manuscripts. 254 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:27,040 And this is hopefully 255 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:30,040 an immortalising of those quite fragile things 256 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:32,080 into something you can hold in your hands. 257 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:35,080 I mean, this is just a third of them. 258 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:37,920 And it's just amazing to think 259 00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:42,840 how many reams of paper she has filled with ideas 260 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:45,080 in a relatively short creative life. 261 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,680 It's pretty amazing to see, pretty amazing to see. 262 00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:59,000 'Fanny's musical voice first emerged with the songs in Berlin. 263 00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:02,440 Her personality lay hidden in another treasure trove. 264 00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:03,960 Her letters to Felix, 265 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,000 all preserved in a collection known as the Green Books 266 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:09,200 in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, 267 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:12,080 which today are being carefully restored.' 268 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:16,920 CITRON: The summer of 1980, 269 00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:19,720 I decided I needed to go to Oxford. 270 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:23,880 And the tone was so... 271 00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:26,320 forthcoming and helpful. 272 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:30,280 I have here one of the three boxes, 273 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:35,200 where there are probably in here maybe 60 or so letters. 274 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:38,160 I was looking through the letters 275 00:16:38,200 --> 00:16:40,760 and I found them absolutely fascinating. 276 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:46,600 It was getting inside the mind and the emotions, the voice, 277 00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:52,000 of a very talented and bright and musical woman 278 00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:53,400 in the past. 279 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:55,640 And it was breathtaking. 280 00:16:56,680 --> 00:16:58,560 FANNY: "I couldn't write to you last week 281 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,120 because I was too busy practising your rondo. 282 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:04,920 Yesterday it was officially launched 283 00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:08,160 with an accompaniment of double quartet and double bass. 284 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,000 I was so enthusiastic about the piece 285 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:13,360 that I was mad enough to play it twice 286 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:15,880 in spite of a bad cough and a weak body." 287 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:21,040 CITRON: One can feel like a snoop. 288 00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:22,600 (LAUGHS) 289 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:26,280 What is the distance between yourself 290 00:17:26,320 --> 00:17:28,440 and the historical subject? 291 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:31,200 So I worked on this over several years. 292 00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:33,320 This took quite a bit of time. 293 00:17:33,360 --> 00:17:38,040 And so finally, this brick came out. 294 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:40,640 And I'm very, very proud of it. 295 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,960 This is the first time that we hear Fanny's voice 296 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:49,280 in a very intimate and full way through these letters. 297 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:51,040 (GENTLE PIANO) 298 00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:55,600 "Yesterday, we went all out for Mozart's birthday. 299 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:57,840 You see how musical we are. 300 00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:00,680 The symphony in G major went down very well. 301 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:03,040 What a brilliant, lively work. 302 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:05,800 But the vocal pieces weren't well chosen 303 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:09,080 and the pianist played a not very beautiful concerto. 304 00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:10,920 Not very beautifully." 305 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:15,960 (DISTANT SIREN WAILS) 306 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:19,640 (HUM OF STREET TRAFFIC) 307 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:25,480 'Fanny and Felix's entangled creative lives 308 00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:30,720 seeded a musical mystery that only surfaced 150 years later 309 00:18:30,760 --> 00:18:34,120 when acclaimed French concert pianist, Eric Heidsieck, 310 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:37,400 was contacted by a music publisher with an exciting offer.' 311 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:40,400 (PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) 312 00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:43,160 ERIC HEIDSIECK: That was in '71. 313 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:47,160 I received a phone call from a record company, 314 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:51,160 a French record company, Cassiopee. 315 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:56,840 He said, "We have a manuscript of a sonata by Mendelssohn 316 00:18:56,880 --> 00:19:00,360 who has never been played by nobody. 317 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:03,440 Will you be interested to make the first recording?" 318 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:06,400 I said, "Of course. I would like to see the manuscript." 319 00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:07,760 (MUSIC CONTINUES) 320 00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:13,520 'At this point, most people had never heard of Fanny. 321 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:17,400 So it was assumed to be a lost work by Felix Mendelssohn.' 322 00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:22,000 (HEIDSIECK, IN FRENCH) 323 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:39,000 (CLASSICAL MUSIC) 324 00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:45,480 (SINGING THE MELODY) 325 00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:53,760 (LAUGHS) 326 00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:56,520 (CLASSICAL MUSIC CONTINUES) 327 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:01,760 (MUSIC ENDS) 328 00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:05,160 (IN ENGLISH) Beautiful work. 329 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:08,240 I think that, really, the first movement is perfect. 330 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:09,720 (FOOTSTEPS) 331 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:11,640 (DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES) 332 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:16,880 KANNEH-MASON: I stretch a lot. 333 00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:20,240 So normally every, probably, half an hour 334 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:22,920 I tend to get up and I just stretch. 335 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:25,480 Then, I tend to put my leg on the stool. 336 00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:28,840 I already feel more loose and relaxed and flexible. 337 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:33,400 And then, when I sit down the next bit of practice can start. 338 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:37,040 'In June, 2022, 339 00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:40,200 the brilliant young pianist, Isata Kanneh-Mason, 340 00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:41,720 sat down for the first time 341 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:43,680 with a new edition of the Easter Sonata, 342 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:47,520 in preparation for its world premiere performance. 343 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:49,760 I was first drawn to the first movement. 344 00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:53,840 Well, I thought it sounded very spring like, 345 00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:56,480 which is very fitting with the title Easter Sonata. 346 00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:58,800 There's lots of hymn-like stuff in the piece. 347 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:01,880 I see that it has four movements and... 348 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:06,880 it looks like the first movement's not too difficult 349 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:09,280 but the ending might be a bit tricky. 350 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:13,360 So I'd already be making a mental note of that. 351 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:16,280 I'll probably first do the beginning 352 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:20,520 just because understanding the opening phrase, 353 00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:23,240 it sets up the premise for the whole movement. 354 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:26,440 ( 355 00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:43,000 So this chord feels like an arrival, 356 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:45,880 which means after that I'd want to have more movement 357 00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:48,400 and fall away from it. So I would want to go... 358 00:21:56,600 --> 00:21:59,240 You want to have a quiet singing cantabile sound. 359 00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:00,720 So the weight doesn't come from... 360 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:03,960 banging the fingers down more. 361 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,920 It's more the shoulders and the arms. 362 00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:12,200 They push the weight into the keys 363 00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:14,400 and so that's how I get more sound. 364 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:21,120 So I just work through each phrase like that, 365 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:24,640 really working out where the harmony's going 366 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,080 because for me that's the only way to make sense 367 00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:28,720 of the dialogue of the piece. 368 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:45,600 (MUSIC ENDS) 369 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:53,400 (BIRDS CHIRPING) (DUCKS QUACKING) 370 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,680 'In 1823, the 16-year-old Fanny 371 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:01,040 meets and falls in love with a penniless artist, 372 00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:02,480 Wilhelm Hensel.' 373 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:08,160 ANNA BEER: I'm looking at a rather dreamy portrait, of Wilhelm. 374 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:12,000 Wilhelm was a struggling artist, 11 years older than Fanny. 375 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:15,200 He made his own paints from plants because he was so poor. 376 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,680 Not quite the husband that the Mendelssohns might have thought 377 00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:20,640 for their precocious daughter. 378 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:25,920 He was packed off, in effect, to Rome for five years. 379 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:27,520 It turned out to be five years, 380 00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:30,360 during which time he was not allowed to write to young Fanny. 381 00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:33,160 So he wasn't allowed to write words to her 382 00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:35,680 but he could send pictures, and he did. 383 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:41,600 Fanny with goodness knows what on her head, 384 00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:44,480 definitely flowers. (LAUGHS) 385 00:23:46,360 --> 00:23:48,720 Another cabbage or a hedge. 386 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:54,680 'Wilhelm eventually returns with a job 387 00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:58,120 as Court Painter to the King, which wins over Fanny's family. 388 00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:02,040 But joining the brilliant Mendelssohn circle is not easy. 389 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:07,240 BEER: The wheel is a remarkable image of the Mendelssohn family. 390 00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:10,360 But where is Wilhelm? 391 00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,680 He's clinging on to the edge of the portrait of a wheel 392 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,280 of the Mendelssohn family. 393 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:19,320 Fanny holding him by a string. 394 00:24:19,360 --> 00:24:23,640 And in the centre is this remarkable, hunched figure 395 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:26,160 of the music-playing Felix. 396 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:27,760 The centre of everything. 397 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:31,080 And it just encapsulates how Wilhelm felt. 398 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:33,400 He's joined this remarkable family, 399 00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:36,240 he's won Fanny but he's not at the centre of things. 400 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,560 He's clinging on for dear life. 401 00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:42,800 And so, those two men, Felix and Wilhelm, 402 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,880 will be the compass points, as it were, of Fanny's life. 403 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:47,240 And she wants both of them. 404 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,240 She tells Wilhelm she wants both of them 405 00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:50,560 and he has to accept that. 406 00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,880 "You must love him unconditionally, 407 00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:01,320 with no boundaries or barriers or fights between us. 408 00:25:01,360 --> 00:25:04,640 Then, I'll be happy for the rest of my life." 409 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,120 Then, Wilhelm responds to Fanny, 410 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,840 "Then there's no need to parcel out your affections. 411 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:13,920 We'll both have all your love 412 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:16,120 and the three of us can never be divided." 413 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:19,120 What a situation for the poor man to be plunged into. 414 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:20,320 Here he is, 415 00:25:20,360 --> 00:25:23,560 he's not just marrying Fanny, he's marrying Felix as well 416 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:26,720 and he has to love both of them. 417 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:30,920 And he has to put up with Felix having half of Fanny's love. 418 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:34,320 It's a very weird situation that they find themselves in. 419 00:25:34,360 --> 00:25:38,360 He becomes this kind of cross between a rock and a cushion 420 00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:41,240 on which she can depend for the rest of her life. 421 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:42,920 (HARPSICHORD PLAYING) 422 00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:46,800 'So how's Fanny to express all these complicated emotions? 423 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,760 In the early 1800s, her options are limited. 424 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:53,160 There aren't many musical instruments she's allowed to play. 425 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:55,800 Ladies can't put anything between their legs, 426 00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,040 so no cello or double bass. 427 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:00,400 Anything in their mouths is too suggestive, 428 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,720 so no flute or clarinet, or any woodwind or brass. 429 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:07,840 Basically, the only thing Fanny's allowed to do 430 00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:10,040 is sit demurely at a keyboard.' 431 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:14,240 (LOUD TAPPING) 432 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:16,840 (PIANO MUSIC) 433 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:20,760 'But when Fanny's still in her teens, 434 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:23,160 the keyboard's sound is transformed 435 00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,800 by the arrival of the first modern pianos. 436 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,040 Big beasts with a sturdy metal frame, 437 00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:34,080 that can express every emotion.' 438 00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:35,640 (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) 439 00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:52,880 'And Fanny takes full advantage of it.' 440 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:55,680 (MELANCHOLIC PIANO) 441 00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:11,560 LARRY TODD: When I was studying as a pianist 442 00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,520 I always had an affinity for Felix's music 443 00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:16,360 and I was just sort of drawn to it. 444 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:23,440 At that time we hardly knew anything about Fanny at all. 445 00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:26,920 Just a few of her pieces were occasionally performed. 446 00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:36,040 Music was absolutely her outlet, that is her private space 447 00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:38,120 and that's where she can explore 448 00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:40,480 and come up with these wonderful ideas. 449 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:51,680 As a composer, it's like a writer, you write every day. 450 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,840 It's a very lonely, solitary existence. 451 00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:57,360 It's you, and in the case of music, 452 00:27:57,400 --> 00:27:59,920 it's you and the piano and the music paper. 453 00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:02,080 But is it going to get out there? 454 00:28:02,120 --> 00:28:04,160 Is it going to have an afterlife? 455 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:05,720 She didn't expect it would. 456 00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:26,120 'Larry shared his enthusiasm for Fanny with his students 457 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:29,400 and gave one of them a hint that would consume her life 458 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,120 for the next 12 years.' 459 00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:37,680 I was in a graduate seminar at Duke where I was PhD student, 460 00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:40,200 and my advisor, Larry Todd, 461 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:44,160 he'd told me before, as I was exploring Fanny Hensel, 462 00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:47,200 "Oh, there's this work that we don't know a lot about. 463 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,480 This is lost, this Easter Sonata." 464 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,400 And the hint, I guess, was, 465 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:55,760 "Wouldn't it be nice if someone found it?" 466 00:28:57,120 --> 00:28:58,760 So I kind of filed it away. 467 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:04,760 'Until now, Fanny's had access to the musical world, 468 00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:08,920 at least indirectly, through Felix's blossoming career. 469 00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:12,080 But when she's 23 and Felix is 20, 470 00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:14,840 he leaves for a grand tour of Europe 471 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,240 which will take him onto the international stage.' 472 00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:21,720 TODD: When he left in 1829 to go to England, 473 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:26,480 that was the first great separation between the siblings. 474 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,720 It's as if this trusted companion, 475 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:35,720 musical companion, who looked at all of her music and vice versa, 476 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:37,040 was suddenly gone. 477 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:43,080 And there's this gaping absence in her life, and... 478 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:47,640 which had to be very, very difficult for her to overcome. 479 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:57,440 'Angela went to Berlin to find out all she could about Fanny. 480 00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:02,160 By now, Fanny's diaries had been made available to scholars. 481 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:05,000 And one of the first entries Angela found 482 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:07,360 was Fanny's account of Felix's departure.' 483 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,440 OK. This is the diary from 1829. 484 00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,480 This was a very emotional moment for her. 485 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:21,680 FANNY MENDELSSOHN: "We got up at 04:00. 486 00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,840 I stayed upstairs with Felix as long as I could 487 00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:28,720 and helped him to dress and do some last-minute packing. 488 00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:30,240 It was cold. 489 00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,920 We watched them as they went down the street to the East. 490 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:41,480 Until we could see them no longer." 491 00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:43,040 (RUNNING STEPS) 492 00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:45,200 (DOOR SLAMS) 493 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:50,520 'But as soon as Felix leaves, Fanny's writing to him. 494 00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:52,040 Letters so personal 495 00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:54,720 that just reading them feels like eavesdropping.' 496 00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:57,960 "I've been alone for two hours at the piano. 497 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,200 I get up, stand in front of your picture and kiss it. 498 00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:04,280 And you feel so completely present 499 00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:09,360 that I have to write to you just to say I'm extremely happy 500 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:11,400 but love you very much. 501 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:12,640 Very much." 502 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,640 It seems like Fanny is really realising now 503 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,320 how much she misses Felix, how much he meant to her, 504 00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:21,160 how much he was in her life and how important he was to her. 505 00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:25,680 It's like sending out a sonar, she wants the echo back. 506 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:27,520 She wants him to write back saying, 507 00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:30,080 "Yes, yes, it's the same. I feel the same. 508 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:31,840 I will always be there for you." 509 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:34,680 She wants reassurance that getting married to somebody else 510 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:36,280 isn't going to change anything 511 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:39,440 and that somehow she will still have that incredibly deep 512 00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,720 and vital companionship that she's always had with Felix. 513 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:46,920 'Felix doesn't write back.' 514 00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:49,960 ANGELA MACE: At some point in the seminar, 515 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,960 Larry received a recording of the Easter Sonata, 516 00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,920 Easter Sonata, from a tiny little French label. 517 00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:58,240 The recording that I had was a cassette. 518 00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:00,480 We used cassettes in those days. 519 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:04,960 I put it in the machine and turned it on and listened to it. 520 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,960 ( 521 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,200 And Larry and I looked at each other. 522 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:15,080 And my immediate instinct was... 523 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:16,840 ..this has to be Fanny. 524 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:20,800 The moment I heard that music 525 00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:24,440 and recognised Fanny's voice in it, 526 00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:28,520 I wanted to prove that it was her music. 527 00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:32,640 There was a certain freedom, a certain spontaneity of form 528 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:36,360 in this Easter Sonata that didn't sound like Felix, 529 00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:39,960 a certain heightened dissonance level. 530 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,040 If I were to compare it to Felix's music, 531 00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,800 I would say Fanny's plumbs the emotions 532 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:47,840 in a little more forthright manner. 533 00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:51,560 And also because she was composing really for herself, 534 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,240 she was able to take risks, she was able to compose something 535 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:56,480 simply because she liked the sound of it. 536 00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:01,400 KANNEH-MASON: So this is a section of the fourth movement 537 00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,440 of the Easter Sonata. 538 00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:05,560 And one of my favourite moments in the piece. 539 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,760 I love the drama of it and I've been looking at it 540 00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:10,600 and just seeing how it's going. 541 00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,080 And then I'm going to be honing in on some bits. 542 00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,000 It's below the final tempo that it will be 543 00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:18,000 and it's still a bit rough round the edges. 544 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:40,880 This movement is really... 545 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:42,320 It's a very brave composition. 546 00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:46,120 It's very out there harmonically and technically. 547 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:48,360 There is so much going on, it's very dramatic. 548 00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:49,720 It changes all the time. 549 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:55,680 You can see such an emotional release 550 00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:57,480 in this piece and in this music. 551 00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:01,240 I mean, this movement in particular is full of anger 552 00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:03,920 and it's also full of excitement and agitation 553 00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,440 and all of the kind of less socially acceptable emotions. 554 00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:14,000 She has this diminished chord for ages that... 555 00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:21,640 And then, instead of resolving, she ends on this chord... 556 00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:25,040 So there's an F in the base 557 00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:27,880 and you're not really sure where it's going harmonically. 558 00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:29,120 It changes each beat. 559 00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:38,080 And it almost seems at the end 560 00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:40,160 like it might go to F major with the... 561 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:42,680 but then she changes it again. 562 00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:48,160 And then this feels like, OK, 563 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:50,160 we're going back to the home key to A minor. 564 00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:55,080 But she still doesn't, 565 00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:57,120 she still ends on this new chord, 566 00:34:57,160 --> 00:34:58,440 this new diminished chord. 567 00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:25,000 So it's not until there that we finally land somewhere 568 00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:26,120 and that was E minor. 569 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:28,800 (CHURCH BELLS RINGING) 570 00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:36,080 'In October, 1829, a few months after Felix leaves, 571 00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:38,800 the 23-year-old Fanny marries Wilhelm 572 00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:40,520 in this church in Berlin. 573 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,080 But she also does something no woman has done before. 574 00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:47,520 Felix is in London. 575 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:50,120 He's supposed to have sent some music for the wedding 576 00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:51,360 but he has an accident 577 00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:53,680 and neither he nor the music arrived. 578 00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:58,800 So the night before the wedding, in the middle of the party, 579 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,000 Fanny sits down to compose.' 580 00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:02,200 (CORK POPS) 581 00:36:02,240 --> 00:36:06,640 "At 08:00 the family gathered for a quiet prenuptial celebration. 582 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:09,080 Then, at around 09:00, 583 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:12,280 Hensel suggested that I write a piece 584 00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:14,360 and I had the nerve to start composing 585 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:16,280 in the presence of all the guests." 586 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:21,000 "I finished at half past midnight, I don't think it's bad. 587 00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:23,040 I sent it to the organist this morning 588 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:24,880 and I hope he'll agree to play it. 589 00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:27,400 It's starting to get very lively around here now." 590 00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:29,560 I mean, I think it's completely typical of Fanny 591 00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:32,360 that she does this thing that no-one had ever done before, 592 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:34,240 which is writing her own wedding music. 593 00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:36,720 Particularly not doing it the night before the wedding, 594 00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:38,920 particularly not doing it in the middle of the party. 595 00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:40,000 It's Fanny. 596 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:42,200 It's who she is. 597 00:36:43,240 --> 00:36:45,800 I have performed this actually myself 598 00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:47,960 and I also had it played at my wedding. 599 00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:50,280 This is not her handwriting, by the way. 600 00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:53,040 Why is it not her hand writing? 601 00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:55,760 This would have been a clean copy made really quickly 602 00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:58,400 so the organist could read it quickly the next day. 603 00:36:58,440 --> 00:36:59,440 So at some point 604 00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:02,520 between 01:00 o'clock in the morning and 12:00 o'clock... 605 00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:06,360 And when she got married, yeah, someone copied it out. 606 00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:09,880 He basically sight read this for her wedding. 607 00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:11,560 And the cool thing about it then, 608 00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:14,800 is the assembled party at her wedding 609 00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,120 got to hear her music performed by a man 610 00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:20,760 on the instrument she wasn't allowed to play. 611 00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:23,040 She wasn't allowed to learn the organ. 612 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,320 Because? Because it was unfeminine. 613 00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:26,360 Because? 614 00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:29,240 Because one must spread their legs to play organ... 615 00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:30,600 That's extraordinary. 616 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:32,880 ..and good women keep their legs closed. 617 00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:36,960 (ORGAN MUSIC) 618 00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:43,880 'Since then, millions of brides have walked down the aisle 619 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:45,600 to Felix's Wedding March. 620 00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:48,520 The one piece of classical music everybody knows. 621 00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:52,160 But Fanny celebrates her marriage in her way.' 622 00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:54,160 (ORGAN MUSIC CONTINUES) 623 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:08,520 (MUSIC ENDS) 624 00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:10,680 (CHOIR SINGING IN GERMAN) 625 00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:19,600 'Fanny and Wilhelm move into the summerhouse 626 00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:21,040 of her parents' home 627 00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:23,320 with its vast and beautiful garden, 628 00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:25,960 where she'll stay for the rest of her life. 629 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:29,000 It's a very happy marriage and soon Fanny is pregnant. 630 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:32,480 BEER: Fanny, since the age of 14 had been told 631 00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:36,520 that her destiny was to be a wife and then a mother. 632 00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:38,840 And she did fall pregnant. 633 00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:45,720 Trouble began when Fanny, as she writes in her diary, 634 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:47,000 she had a bad night. 635 00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:52,760 "On the 24th of May, I had an accident in the night, 636 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:55,880 which caused fears of an early birth 637 00:38:55,920 --> 00:39:00,080 and it took all of my courage and strength to prevent it." 638 00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:02,160 (HEAVY BREATHING) (HEART POUNDING) 639 00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:09,080 She knew something was seriously wrong and the decision was 640 00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:12,160 complete bed rest or else she would lose the baby. 641 00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:13,840 And so, that is what happened. 642 00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:17,080 "In the following three weeks 643 00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:20,760 my beloved Wilhelm was constantly by my side. 644 00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:21,960 I'll never forget it." 645 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:24,880 BEER: She goes into labour on June 14th, 646 00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:26,760 two days of labour, 647 00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:30,920 and finally, a premature baby boy is born. 648 00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:32,360 (BABY CRYING) 649 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:38,040 Remarkably and gloriously, 650 00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:42,440 Sebastian, Babsen as he was called, survives. 651 00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:45,200 But for me, the... 652 00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:49,120 There's also a very clear psychological toll 653 00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:50,240 of the confinement. 654 00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:54,080 I mean, it is confinement and it's in its strictest sense. 655 00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:56,720 She's confined to a space, 656 00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:02,000 utterly unable to do the active things, 657 00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:05,520 the creative things that make her who she is. 658 00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:09,960 'Like many new mothers, Fanny is terrified 659 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,560 that she'll never get her old self back. 660 00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:15,400 She writes to Felix hoping for reassurance 661 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:17,840 but that's not what she gets in return.' 662 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:22,200 FELIX: "If you wanted to, 663 00:40:22,240 --> 00:40:25,280 you would already be composing with all your energies. 664 00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:29,760 And if you don't want to, why work yourself up about it? 665 00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:35,160 If I were nursing a baby, I wouldn't want to compose as well. 666 00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:39,560 Seriously, the child isn't yet six months old 667 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:42,320 and you already want to think about other things?" 668 00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:48,880 It's one of those things that still continues for women 669 00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:50,960 that being a woman is enough. 670 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:54,200 You know, being a woman, having children, 671 00:40:54,240 --> 00:40:56,360 you can be creative in the home, 672 00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:59,880 that there's a lot to do and it can be enough. 673 00:40:59,920 --> 00:41:01,760 But if you add to that 674 00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:05,320 the kind of self-doubt that every artist has, 675 00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:09,200 nobody is making you spend hours a day finishing a piece 676 00:41:09,240 --> 00:41:12,920 that you don't even know where it's going to get performed. 677 00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:15,440 And when the child is crying, 678 00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:18,120 the house needs to be taken care of, 679 00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:22,320 all daily life can take over very easily. 680 00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:27,040 "The fact that one is reproached for one's miserable feminine nature 681 00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:29,560 by the Lords of creation every day 682 00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:31,280 and on every step of one's life, 683 00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:33,480 could send a person into a rage 684 00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:35,440 and rob her of her femininity. 685 00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:38,040 But that, of course, would make things even worse." 686 00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:40,200 Fanny didn't usually let her feelings 687 00:41:40,240 --> 00:41:42,960 about her allotted feminine role in life out. 688 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:46,160 But when you have a brother and you see him being given things 689 00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:49,800 that you're not being given yourself and there's no obvious reason for it 690 00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:52,760 apart from the fact that he's male and you're female, 691 00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:56,480 I think anybody with half a brain would be very frustrated. 692 00:41:56,520 --> 00:41:59,640 But she was stuck in this terrible bind 693 00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:03,880 that the only way to please her family and to be loved, 694 00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:05,360 which was very important to her, 695 00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:07,880 was to behave in a way that was completely alien to her nature 696 00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:11,280 and moreover, to suppress her musical creativity. 697 00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:17,200 And that was a bind and a struggle and a paradox 698 00:42:17,240 --> 00:42:19,120 that dominated her life. 699 00:42:19,160 --> 00:42:21,120 (WHOOSHING) (BIRDS CHIRPING) 700 00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:23,000 ( 701 00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:37,280 'While Fanny is in Berlin tied to domestic duties 702 00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:39,360 and barely leaving the house, 703 00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:41,480 Felix is travelling around Britain, 704 00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:43,960 where the beauty and majesty of nature 705 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:46,640 inspire some of his most famous music.' 706 00:42:46,680 --> 00:42:49,000 (MUSIC CONTINUES) 707 00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:52,120 (SEAGULLS SQUAWKING) 708 00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:58,440 (MUSIC SWELLS) 709 00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:03,120 (BIRDS CHIRPING) (MUSIC QUIETENS) 710 00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:08,160 (MUSIC SWELLS SUDDENLY) 711 00:43:12,720 --> 00:43:14,200 (MUSIC ENDS) 712 00:43:14,240 --> 00:43:15,840 (METRONOME CLICKING) 713 00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,760 'Travelling is also the only way to hear music. 714 00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:25,360 Fanny's cut off from that too.' 715 00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:29,240 It's easy for us to forget how much was lost 716 00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:32,760 by not being able to travel, by not being able to hear 717 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:35,160 Beethoven's Symphonies all over the place, 718 00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:38,400 to hear the latest operas. 719 00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:41,080 Fanny really was in a situation. 720 00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:43,000 There are no recordings. 721 00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:47,320 In order to hear music, you have to either make music yourself 722 00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:49,680 or be in a room with someone who's making it. 723 00:43:49,720 --> 00:43:50,920 There's no other way. 724 00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:52,160 (DISTANT CHATTER) 725 00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:58,000 'So Fanny decides that if she can't go to where the music is, 726 00:43:58,040 --> 00:43:59,800 music shall come to her. 727 00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:02,160 And luckily, her gilded cage is big enough 728 00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:04,840 to accommodate an impressive series of concerts.' 729 00:44:05,720 --> 00:44:08,000 (GLASSES CLINK) (PIANO PLAYING) 730 00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:26,040 Fanny started these Sunday musicals in the family home. 731 00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:30,040 These were elaborate affairs and Fanny really grew them. 732 00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:32,480 It was really like running a festival 733 00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:35,240 because she would hire the musicians, 734 00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:37,520 she would programme large pieces, 735 00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:41,360 she would conduct, which is really surprising, 736 00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:45,000 and great musicians came to these concerts. 737 00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:48,480 And most of the reports that we have from great musicians 738 00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:51,880 about how impressive she was 739 00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:55,920 come from the performances that they did at their home. 740 00:44:57,240 --> 00:44:58,960 (GRAND FINALE MUSIC) 741 00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:00,960 (CHEERING) (APPLAUSE) 742 00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:08,480 (WHOOSHING) (BIRDS CHIRPING) 743 00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:16,720 'Fanny's concerts, however grand, are still held in private 744 00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:20,200 but Felix is out in the world, meeting the Queen of England.' 745 00:45:20,240 --> 00:45:22,440 (WALTZ MUSIC PLAYING) 746 00:45:29,720 --> 00:45:31,600 TODD: In the summer of 1842, 747 00:45:31,640 --> 00:45:33,840 Felix was received at Buckingham Palace 748 00:45:33,880 --> 00:45:36,440 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. 749 00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:38,720 Queen Victoria was a singer, a soprano, 750 00:45:38,760 --> 00:45:41,640 and she wanted to sing one of Felix's songs. 751 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:46,080 "While they were talking, I rummaged about in the music 752 00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:48,120 and soon found my first set of songs. 753 00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:51,400 And which did she choose? 754 00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:52,960 Italien. 755 00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:56,000 Sang it quite charmingly in strict time and tune 756 00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:57,680 and with very good execution." 757 00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,680 'But the words in the song are a young girl's dream 758 00:46:01,720 --> 00:46:03,560 of a place she longs to visit.' 759 00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:06,560 760 00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:08,000 761 00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:09,880 762 00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:11,600 763 00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:15,000 ALISON LANGER: This song, Italien, it's split into three verses 764 00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:17,120 so she is describing her love of Italy 765 00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:18,960 and her longing to go there. 766 00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:21,840 She's talking about how everything is just richer. 767 00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,840 So she says the sky is bluer, the grass is greener, 768 00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:27,640 the smells are more fragrant, 769 00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:30,760 oranges being really inviting to pick. 770 00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:33,000 771 00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:36,280 Greeting women? 772 00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:38,800 Sparkling like gold? 773 00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:40,520 It's in a waltz time, 774 00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:43,400 so you can imagine if you're really excited about something, 775 00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:45,360 usually you would dance around the room 776 00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:47,960 and that's how I feel when I sing this song. 777 00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:50,400 778 00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:53,800 And murmurs so sweetly? 779 00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:57,080 Ather to look 780 00:46:57,120 --> 00:47:00,800 Terrible horror? 781 00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:02,760 782 00:47:02,800 --> 00:47:05,280 The accompaniment is really like a heartbeat 783 00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:07,360 and at the end there's a really long note. 784 00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:08,840 She elongates the note 785 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,320 because she wants to have that final outpouring of emotion. 786 00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:15,120 And I think that really reads in the final part of the song. 787 00:47:15,160 --> 00:47:18,600 788 00:47:18,640 --> 00:47:22,800 789 00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:31,040 'This is the favourite song 790 00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:33,800 of the most powerful woman in the world 791 00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:36,120 and she thinks it's by Felix. 792 00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:39,440 After all, it does have his name on the front.' 793 00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:42,280 TODD: So here we have two facsimiles 794 00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:44,640 of the title pages of Felix's, 795 00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:47,440 quote-unquote, Opus Eight and Opus Nine. 796 00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:52,080 And it says 12 songs with accompaniment of the piano 797 00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:56,320 set into music by in his name, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, 798 00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:58,280 is given on both pages. 799 00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:00,760 There's no reference to Fanny at all. 800 00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:04,240 And Italien had been published under Felix's name 801 00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:07,880 in his Opus Eight and in fact it was composed by Fanny. 802 00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:11,720 So Felix writes a humorous letter to Berlin, 803 00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:17,080 where he says that he had to confess the mistake. 804 00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:22,120 "Then, I was forced to confess that Fanny had written the song, 805 00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:26,280 which I found very hard but pride must have a fall, 806 00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:29,000 and to beg her to sing one of my own as well." 807 00:48:30,720 --> 00:48:32,720 It doesn't look great, does it? 808 00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:34,480 I mean, it doesn't make him look great. 809 00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:36,600 No, it doesn't. 810 00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:40,840 It makes it look as though he's practising piracy 811 00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:44,000 stealing her music and so forth. 812 00:48:44,040 --> 00:48:46,040 History is rarely black and white. 813 00:48:46,080 --> 00:48:48,840 It's usually filled with subtle nuances 814 00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:51,040 and so, it is in this case. 815 00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:55,400 There is a letter where Felix asks her 816 00:48:55,440 --> 00:48:58,040 basically because he's being hounded by the publisher 817 00:48:58,080 --> 00:49:01,400 and he says, "If Fanny could choose some things 818 00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:04,880 either mine or hers according to her discretion," 819 00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:07,480 is what he writes, "that would be a big help." 820 00:49:07,520 --> 00:49:10,080 So I think Fanny's assumption was 821 00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:12,440 that this was a way of getting her music out 822 00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:15,200 even though her name was not attached to it. 823 00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:20,480 So the irony of this trip of Felix to Buckingham Palace 824 00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:25,960 and the confusion about who had composed these songs 825 00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:28,040 was that, in fact, 826 00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:31,360 their music could easily be mistaken for each other's. 827 00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:33,040 As an example, 828 00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:38,920 the Easter Sonata has a scherzo that Fanny writes 829 00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:43,000 and the main theme of it something like this... 830 00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:44,960 (UPBEAT MELODY) 831 00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:53,200 Now, this is 1828. 832 00:49:53,240 --> 00:49:56,760 If we go fast forward to 1832, just a few years later, 833 00:49:56,800 --> 00:49:59,680 Felix writes a piece for piano and orchestra called 834 00:49:59,720 --> 00:50:02,600 the Capriccio Brillante, Opus 22, 835 00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:04,680 and the second theme 836 00:50:04,720 --> 00:50:09,040 of his capriccio is this... 837 00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:11,400 (PLAYS SIMILAR UPBEAT MELODY) 838 00:50:16,440 --> 00:50:18,880 So again, Fanny's. (PLAYING MELODY) 839 00:50:21,040 --> 00:50:26,000 It's as if Fanny got to the idea first. 840 00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:28,040 Felix adapted and tweaked a little bit, 841 00:50:28,080 --> 00:50:31,760 turned it into a march for his Capriccio Brillante. 842 00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:33,720 So in this case, the line of influence 843 00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:36,160 is from Fanny to Felix, not Felix to Fanny. 844 00:50:36,200 --> 00:50:38,800 There are examples both ways. 845 00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:50,160 KANNEH-MASON: This is the scherzo, 846 00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:53,880 which is the third movement of the Easter Sonata. 847 00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:56,240 And I particularly like this movement 848 00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:59,320 because I think it's also the most difficult movement. 849 00:50:59,360 --> 00:51:01,440 I think here Fanny is really showing 850 00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:03,320 what she can do on the piano 851 00:51:03,360 --> 00:51:05,680 and she skips around the instrument a lot. 852 00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:14,360 And I think to write a piece of music like this, 853 00:51:14,400 --> 00:51:16,160 with so much light and shade, 854 00:51:16,200 --> 00:51:19,120 shows that she was a very multi-dimensional woman 855 00:51:19,160 --> 00:51:21,720 and also a fabulous pianist, obviously. 856 00:51:23,680 --> 00:51:25,720 But it's very complicated music. 857 00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:32,960 I think learning this music has taught me that about her. 858 00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:53,800 (MUSIC FADES OUT) 859 00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:05,120 MACE: I never expected to actually find 860 00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:07,400 the Easter Sonata manuscript. 861 00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:12,000 What I was going to do is, and what I did at first was, 862 00:52:12,040 --> 00:52:14,720 hunt for all of the little details 863 00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:18,440 that hinted at the existence of this manuscript 864 00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:22,080 throughout letters and diaries of Fanny, 865 00:52:22,120 --> 00:52:24,840 records from archives and those kinds of things. 866 00:52:24,880 --> 00:52:28,520 To put together sort of a negative space 867 00:52:28,560 --> 00:52:31,960 around this lost manuscript. 868 00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:34,960 'As Angela read on, 869 00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:38,560 in Fanny's diary entry about Felix's departure 870 00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:41,160 she came upon four vital words.' 871 00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:43,760 MACE: Yeah, this is her writing on the 13th of April. 872 00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:46,760 As she's writing about 'Ostermontag', Easter Monday, 873 00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:51,920 she gives so many details about that morning three days ago 874 00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:53,480 when she writes it. 875 00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:57,320 So that emotional impact is definitely really evident. 876 00:52:57,360 --> 00:53:00,440 Right there, she says, 877 00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:02,920 "Ich spielte meine Ostersonate." 878 00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:05,120 "I played my Easter Sonata." 879 00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:09,080 It's very matter of fact, she just drops it right in there. 880 00:53:09,120 --> 00:53:11,120 Nothing else about it. 881 00:53:11,160 --> 00:53:13,640 'But that's not all Angela found.' 882 00:53:13,680 --> 00:53:15,840 OK. Thank you. 883 00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:17,080 Here we are. 884 00:53:19,080 --> 00:53:20,600 OK. 885 00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:22,960 Oh, you can see something was cut out. 886 00:53:24,080 --> 00:53:26,640 So this volume is quite a thick volume 887 00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:29,880 and it contains pieces 888 00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:33,040 that were really important to Fanny throughout her life. 889 00:53:34,400 --> 00:53:36,880 Very careful with the corners. 890 00:53:36,920 --> 00:53:38,160 86. 891 00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:45,080 Not sure why it goes to 87, 88 and then 111. 892 00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:47,760 So we are missing something right here, 893 00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:50,400 which gave me the clue to start looking here. 894 00:53:51,480 --> 00:53:53,680 'The volume had had a complicated history. 895 00:53:53,720 --> 00:53:57,440 But luckily the archive had kept a detailed record.' 896 00:53:57,480 --> 00:54:00,520 ROLAND SCHMIDT-HENSEL: The Fanny collection today is in Berlin. 897 00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:04,320 It's mostly based on the collection of Hugo von Mendelssohn Bartholdy. 898 00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:05,760 In this notebook, 899 00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:10,240 we have a short catalogue of these 21 volumes, 900 00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:12,480 and here is number six. 901 00:54:12,520 --> 00:54:15,240 There's a Capriccio and there's Hero und Leander 902 00:54:15,280 --> 00:54:19,240 and there is Ostersonate fur Klavier, 903 00:54:19,280 --> 00:54:22,400 page 89 to 109. 904 00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:27,280 And we have another note by a librarian 905 00:54:27,320 --> 00:54:32,400 that this special volume was ripped from the donation. 906 00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:36,840 It doesn't say why but it didn't arrive here. 907 00:54:37,960 --> 00:54:40,320 Then, in 1973, 908 00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:44,600 the volume appeared at an auction house here in Germany 909 00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:49,440 but without these pages, without the Easter Sonata, 910 00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:52,080 because this was removed. 911 00:54:54,400 --> 00:54:58,360 I knew that pages 89 through 110 were missing 912 00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:01,320 and that any manuscript I'd be looking for in the future 913 00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:04,880 would hopefully have 89 through 110 on it 914 00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:10,480 to prove that it was the work missing from this volume. 915 00:55:11,360 --> 00:55:12,920 'The one thing nobody knew 916 00:55:12,960 --> 00:55:17,120 was why the Easter Sonata manuscript had been removed from the volume. 917 00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:18,360 But Angela realised 918 00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:20,680 that the manuscript must have been in Paris 919 00:55:20,720 --> 00:55:22,200 when the recording was made.' 920 00:55:23,960 --> 00:55:27,120 MACE: As part of my research I found out, 921 00:55:27,160 --> 00:55:30,440 the pianist who had recorded this Easter Sonata, 922 00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:32,880 this Sonate de Paques for the French label, 923 00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:35,360 was a man named Eric Heidsieck 924 00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:37,480 and I looked him up. 925 00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:40,200 I found out he still lives in Paris. 926 00:55:42,520 --> 00:55:44,160 (PIANO PLAYING) 927 00:55:44,200 --> 00:55:46,040 (VOCALISING) 928 00:55:47,840 --> 00:55:50,960 And was able to get his contact information 929 00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:53,320 and one of the questions I had for him was 930 00:55:53,360 --> 00:55:56,720 if he'd ever seen the manuscript and he said, 931 00:55:56,760 --> 00:56:00,840 "Absolutely, I did once back in the early 70s." 932 00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:03,120 But he hadn't seen it since then. 933 00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:07,920 So a week or two before I actually got on the plane 934 00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:09,240 and flew to Paris, 935 00:56:09,280 --> 00:56:12,920 I, as a last ditch effort, gave him a call 936 00:56:12,960 --> 00:56:15,520 and asked him if he had any idea 937 00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:18,560 if the manuscript owner would let us see it. 938 00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:22,000 A short time later he called me back and said, 939 00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:24,000 "Yes, we have an appointment on Sunday 940 00:56:24,040 --> 00:56:25,720 to go see the manuscript." 941 00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:27,320 942 00:56:27,360 --> 00:56:28,680 943 00:56:28,720 --> 00:56:30,720 944 00:56:30,760 --> 00:56:32,480 I'd never been to Paris before. 945 00:56:33,960 --> 00:56:36,800 I don't speak French very well, really, at all. 946 00:56:36,840 --> 00:56:42,000 So I was just following him as best I could. 947 00:56:42,040 --> 00:56:45,640 (CLASSICAL MUSIC) (HUM OF TRAFFIC) 948 00:56:45,680 --> 00:56:47,920 MACE: When we arrive at the building, 949 00:56:47,960 --> 00:56:50,400 we walk into Coudert's office 950 00:56:50,440 --> 00:56:55,360 and it's just masses of papers and records. 951 00:56:55,400 --> 00:56:59,960 I'm thinking, "Where is the manuscript in all of this?" 952 00:57:02,240 --> 00:57:05,720 (COUDERT, IN FRENCH) 953 00:57:16,920 --> 00:57:20,000 It's completely chaotic and he hands me this folder 954 00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:23,200 and I don't know where to put it down. 955 00:57:23,240 --> 00:57:27,560 Very surreal experience holding this manuscript in my hands 956 00:57:27,600 --> 00:57:29,400 that A, I never expected to find 957 00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:32,720 and B, no-one had seen at least a good 40 years. 958 00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:35,640 It was a heart-stopping moment 959 00:57:35,680 --> 00:57:38,400 because I recognised it as her handwriting. 960 00:57:38,440 --> 00:57:42,600 That would establish that this really was the Easter Sonata. 961 00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:46,600 (COUDERT, IN FRENCH) 962 00:58:06,080 --> 00:58:08,080 MACE: I wasn't there to get his opinion 963 00:58:08,120 --> 00:58:10,320 'cause he clearly thought it was Felix. 964 00:58:11,680 --> 00:58:15,160 Time stretched in weird ways in that moment. 965 00:58:15,200 --> 00:58:19,400 But I did get a chance to turn every page over 966 00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:21,480 and there were numbers 967 00:58:21,520 --> 00:58:24,280 on the lower right-hand corner of the pages. 968 00:58:24,320 --> 00:58:27,480 And the numbers on the lower right-hand corner 969 00:58:27,520 --> 00:58:31,160 of the manuscript, 89 through 110, 970 00:58:31,200 --> 00:58:33,760 matched the missing pages 971 00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:36,600 in the volume that is now in the Staatsbibliothek. 972 00:58:38,280 --> 00:58:39,840 'Angela had now seen 973 00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:42,240 both Fanny's handwriting on the manuscript 974 00:58:42,280 --> 00:58:46,280 and the page numbers matching the gap in the Berlin volume, 975 00:58:46,320 --> 00:58:49,600 but she had no photos to prove Fanny's authorship. 976 00:58:49,640 --> 00:58:52,160 And then, it vanished again.' 977 00:58:52,200 --> 00:58:55,280 (WOMAN, IN FRENCH) 978 00:58:55,320 --> 00:58:57,160 (COUDERT, IN FRENCH) 979 00:59:00,920 --> 00:59:02,960 (WOMAN, IN FRENCH) 980 00:59:11,520 --> 00:59:12,800 (BIRDS CHIRPING) 981 00:59:17,040 --> 00:59:20,440 'Still barely 30, Fanny is busy with her concerts, 982 00:59:20,480 --> 00:59:23,080 but she also adores her son Sebastian 983 00:59:23,120 --> 00:59:24,880 and wants another child.' 984 00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:25,920 (CLOCK TICKING) 985 00:59:27,800 --> 00:59:29,720 BEER: Fanny fell pregnant again, 986 00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:32,600 and again was confined to bed 987 00:59:32,640 --> 00:59:34,880 for reasons that we're not entirely sure of 988 00:59:34,920 --> 00:59:38,520 but clearly the situation was precarious. 989 00:59:38,560 --> 00:59:39,760 It was September. 990 00:59:39,800 --> 00:59:42,160 She stayed in bed week after week after week. 991 00:59:42,200 --> 00:59:43,800 And then, in November, 992 00:59:43,840 --> 00:59:49,440 there's this stark, painful to read entry in her diary 993 00:59:49,480 --> 00:59:53,080 where she writes, "I was delivered of a dead baby girl." 994 01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:08,440 And that for me is Fanny Hensel's life. 995 01:00:08,480 --> 01:00:11,040 She's expected, she expects herself 996 01:00:11,080 --> 01:00:15,760 to soak up these experiences, these traumas, these losses 997 01:00:15,800 --> 01:00:20,280 and keep the brave face going, stay strong and she did it. 998 01:00:20,320 --> 01:00:22,200 She did that again and again. 999 01:00:25,880 --> 01:00:28,080 We're now moving to a song 1000 01:00:28,120 --> 01:00:30,760 from slightly later in her career as a composer. 1001 01:00:30,800 --> 01:00:34,480 And this is called Abschied, which is Farewell. 1002 01:00:34,520 --> 01:00:36,640 Not only has this never been published 1003 01:00:36,680 --> 01:00:39,400 and, as far as I know or anyone knows, 1004 01:00:39,440 --> 01:00:41,880 maybe never sung, maybe never heard. 1005 01:00:41,920 --> 01:00:44,160 It shows what I think is really special 1006 01:00:44,200 --> 01:00:45,880 about Fanny's voice as a composer, 1007 01:00:45,920 --> 01:00:49,800 which is this extremely emotional quality to it. 1008 01:00:49,840 --> 01:00:52,480 Emotional in the sense that, as a singer, 1009 01:00:52,520 --> 01:00:55,120 and an opera singer especially, 1010 01:00:55,160 --> 01:00:57,840 the length of the phrases, the breadth of the phrases, 1011 01:00:57,880 --> 01:01:02,600 actually allows for a sort of outpouring of a very raw 1012 01:01:02,640 --> 01:01:04,920 and very earnest emotion. 1013 01:01:04,960 --> 01:01:07,560 Something that actually really physically comes from within. 1014 01:01:07,600 --> 01:01:09,120 ( 1015 01:01:10,360 --> 01:01:16,360 1016 01:01:18,320 --> 01:01:24,320 1017 01:01:26,640 --> 01:01:29,160 1018 01:01:29,200 --> 01:01:31,480 The theme, the text of this poem, 1019 01:01:31,520 --> 01:01:34,240 "What is life?" 1020 01:01:34,280 --> 01:01:35,640 "What is life?" 1021 01:01:35,680 --> 01:01:38,920 Big philosophical questions. 1022 01:01:38,960 --> 01:01:43,560 "From night and day brighter, Loss and pain." 1023 01:01:43,600 --> 01:01:46,880 "From night and day's brilliance, 1024 01:01:46,920 --> 01:01:50,160 pain, sorrow, loss." 1025 01:01:50,200 --> 01:01:51,440 She's expressing things 1026 01:01:51,480 --> 01:01:56,000 that not only could a woman not express in public society 1027 01:01:56,040 --> 01:01:59,880 but actually no-one in this era of a conservative Germany 1028 01:01:59,920 --> 01:02:03,040 could express this sort of feeling outside of poetry. 1029 01:02:03,080 --> 01:02:05,720 1030 01:02:05,760 --> 01:02:12,680 1031 01:02:15,560 --> 01:02:18,920 Probably as far as she knew, she was the only person, 1032 01:02:18,960 --> 01:02:23,680 only woman that was sitting down and being a composer. 1033 01:02:23,720 --> 01:02:25,520 That act of writing down, 1034 01:02:25,560 --> 01:02:30,280 fulfilling this restricted role 1035 01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:33,800 that was laid out by her society that she could not be. 1036 01:02:33,840 --> 01:02:35,600 And yet, she sat down, 1037 01:02:35,640 --> 01:02:38,480 she defied, she was brave, she chose. 1038 01:02:38,520 --> 01:02:40,400 Not only did she do it, but she excelled. 1039 01:02:40,440 --> 01:02:43,440 And it makes me think of her as this really political figure. 1040 01:02:43,480 --> 01:02:45,160 Every time she sits down to write 1041 01:02:45,200 --> 01:02:48,440 being an act of defiance or an act of desire. 1042 01:02:48,480 --> 01:02:51,400 (ORCHESTRA PLAYING) 1043 01:02:55,600 --> 01:02:58,880 'Two centuries on, still only 5% of the music 1044 01:02:58,920 --> 01:03:01,320 in the world's concert halls is by women, 1045 01:03:01,360 --> 01:03:04,960 and the barriers Fanny faced have been compounded by others. 1046 01:03:10,760 --> 01:03:15,400 We all have this sort of dance around the whole idea of equality 1047 01:03:15,440 --> 01:03:18,480 but things aren't equal. 1048 01:03:20,160 --> 01:03:22,680 I'm always trying to undo the injustices. 1049 01:03:22,720 --> 01:03:25,720 And so we always have female composers, Black composers, 1050 01:03:25,760 --> 01:03:28,520 people who've been overlooked and neglected 1051 01:03:28,560 --> 01:03:30,040 for no good reason. 1052 01:03:30,080 --> 01:03:32,480 And when you come to London, 1053 01:03:32,520 --> 01:03:35,440 it's arguably the most diverse city in the world. 1054 01:03:35,480 --> 01:03:39,440 So everywhere you go it's multinational. 1055 01:03:39,480 --> 01:03:42,840 And then the minute I stepped into my place of work, 1056 01:03:42,880 --> 01:03:44,320 everything changed. 1057 01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:47,560 I would always be the odd one out. 1058 01:03:47,600 --> 01:03:49,280 (MUSIC CONTINUES) 1059 01:03:57,880 --> 01:04:01,440 When I was beginning to create the Chineke! orchestra, 1060 01:04:01,480 --> 01:04:04,920 the more I spoke to people, I heard people saying, 1061 01:04:04,960 --> 01:04:07,040 "But you'll never be able to do it, Chi-chi, 1062 01:04:07,080 --> 01:04:09,680 because it's not really your sort of music, is it? 1063 01:04:09,720 --> 01:04:11,400 It's not really Black people's music 1064 01:04:11,440 --> 01:04:13,960 and the Black people who do play classical instruments, 1065 01:04:14,000 --> 01:04:15,760 they're not very good at it." 1066 01:04:20,200 --> 01:04:22,800 I just heard this from a few people and I just thought, 1067 01:04:22,840 --> 01:04:25,360 "You know what? I'm going to look anyway." 1068 01:04:25,400 --> 01:04:28,840 What was really clear and extraordinary, 1069 01:04:28,880 --> 01:04:30,200 which I will never forget, 1070 01:04:30,240 --> 01:04:33,400 is the first moment of coming into a rehearsal room 1071 01:04:33,440 --> 01:04:37,240 with all these people of different nationalities and colours 1072 01:04:37,280 --> 01:04:39,840 just carrying a flute or a violin or a bassoon 1073 01:04:39,880 --> 01:04:41,920 as though it's the most normal thing. 1074 01:04:43,240 --> 01:04:46,080 I think it's probably the first time in all of our lives 1075 01:04:46,120 --> 01:04:50,440 that the only thing we had to think about was the music, 1076 01:04:50,480 --> 01:04:51,840 nothing else. 1077 01:04:53,680 --> 01:04:57,440 Everyone belongs, which is a basic human need. 1078 01:05:08,640 --> 01:05:12,320 'Realising that Fanny's childbearing days are probably over, 1079 01:05:12,360 --> 01:05:15,040 her mother Lea, herself a gifted musician, 1080 01:05:15,080 --> 01:05:19,240 understands her daughter needs something else to live for. 1081 01:05:19,280 --> 01:05:22,280 And it finally changes her mind about Fanny's longing 1082 01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:24,320 to be a published musician. 1083 01:05:24,360 --> 01:05:26,240 Lea writes to Felix, 1084 01:05:26,280 --> 01:05:28,560 but she can't share her reasons with a man, 1085 01:05:28,600 --> 01:05:30,200 even her own son. 1086 01:05:31,920 --> 01:05:36,640 "Now, permit me to pose a question and a request. 1087 01:05:36,680 --> 01:05:39,560 Shouldn't Fanny publish a selection of her songs 1088 01:05:39,600 --> 01:05:41,040 and piano pieces? 1089 01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:44,240 The only thing holding her back 1090 01:05:44,280 --> 01:05:48,400 is that you haven't suggested it or encouraged her to do so. 1091 01:05:49,960 --> 01:05:52,640 Wouldn't it be reasonable for you to cheer her on 1092 01:05:52,680 --> 01:05:54,480 and help her find a publisher?" 1093 01:05:59,000 --> 01:06:01,720 BEER: She handles him very, very carefully with kid gloves. 1094 01:06:01,760 --> 01:06:04,560 She flatters him. She massages his ego. 1095 01:06:04,600 --> 01:06:07,040 But she's sending a very important message, 1096 01:06:07,080 --> 01:06:10,920 "Your sister is in trouble. Your sister is struggling. 1097 01:06:10,960 --> 01:06:13,440 Please, could you support her now?" 1098 01:06:15,120 --> 01:06:16,640 'Felix replies to Lea 1099 01:06:16,680 --> 01:06:19,520 but specifies she's not to show the letter to Fanny.' 1100 01:06:20,560 --> 01:06:22,720 "I can't encourage her to publish 1101 01:06:22,760 --> 01:06:26,080 since it's against my principles but also my views. 1102 01:06:26,120 --> 01:06:29,360 People should only publish if they commit to it for life. 1103 01:06:29,400 --> 01:06:32,600 That means a stream of works one after the other. 1104 01:06:32,640 --> 01:06:34,840 To send out just one or two is, in effect, 1105 01:06:34,880 --> 01:06:36,560 a vanity project for friends. 1106 01:06:36,600 --> 01:06:38,200 A horrible idea. 1107 01:06:38,240 --> 01:06:41,320 Fanny has neither the drive nor the vocation 1108 01:06:41,360 --> 01:06:43,600 for professional authorship, 1109 01:06:43,640 --> 01:06:47,920 because she's too much a proper wife as she should be." 1110 01:06:49,520 --> 01:06:55,400 I mean, this is just completely mad and completely unfathomable 1111 01:06:55,440 --> 01:06:57,960 and probably the single greatest mystery 1112 01:06:58,000 --> 01:06:59,880 in their entire relationship. 1113 01:06:59,920 --> 01:07:03,080 This is the man who spent the first 20 years of his life 1114 01:07:03,120 --> 01:07:04,320 side by side with her. 1115 01:07:04,360 --> 01:07:06,120 This is the man who knows 1116 01:07:06,160 --> 01:07:08,240 that she has been writing up until this point, 1117 01:07:08,280 --> 01:07:09,920 probably 300 pieces of music. 1118 01:07:09,960 --> 01:07:12,760 He says he doesn't think she's serious. 1119 01:07:13,960 --> 01:07:15,760 A completely beggars' belief. 1120 01:07:15,800 --> 01:07:18,000 I have no idea what was going through his mind 1121 01:07:18,040 --> 01:07:19,640 and I don't think I ever will. 1122 01:07:21,040 --> 01:07:23,240 'Fortunately, the other man in her life 1123 01:07:23,280 --> 01:07:25,840 understands Fanny better.' 1124 01:07:25,880 --> 01:07:29,280 Wilhelm is an unsung hero of the 19th century 1125 01:07:29,320 --> 01:07:31,080 because he was that rare beast. 1126 01:07:31,120 --> 01:07:33,600 A husband, an artist in his own right, 1127 01:07:33,640 --> 01:07:38,720 who supported 100% his artist wife, Fanny Hensel. 1128 01:07:38,760 --> 01:07:42,000 What he gave Fanny Hensel 1129 01:07:42,040 --> 01:07:45,120 is permission to continue composing. 1130 01:07:45,160 --> 01:07:49,160 And then, year after year, the encouragement to take her music 1131 01:07:49,200 --> 01:07:54,920 out into the wider world against every single wish of her family. 1132 01:07:54,960 --> 01:07:57,640 Wilhelm had enough confidence in his wife. 1133 01:07:57,680 --> 01:08:00,320 Her music was good enough and she was strong enough. 1134 01:08:00,360 --> 01:08:01,560 ( 1135 01:08:01,600 --> 01:08:04,400 The plan is decorated 1136 01:08:04,440 --> 01:08:07,520 'All her life, Fanny has longed to go to Italy, 1137 01:08:07,560 --> 01:08:09,640 dreamed and written songs about it 1138 01:08:09,680 --> 01:08:11,720 but she's never managed to get there.' 1139 01:08:11,760 --> 01:08:14,240 Of poetry 1140 01:08:14,280 --> 01:08:19,280 'Finally, in 1839, Wilhelm takes her there 1141 01:08:19,320 --> 01:08:22,000 and it blows her mind.' 1142 01:08:22,040 --> 01:08:23,760 (MUSIC CONTINUES) 1143 01:08:25,920 --> 01:08:29,720 Swelling with juice 1144 01:08:29,760 --> 01:08:31,640 1145 01:08:31,680 --> 01:08:34,120 1146 01:08:34,160 --> 01:08:36,720 ROTHENBERG: Her happiest time was perhaps the year 1147 01:08:36,760 --> 01:08:39,040 that she spent in Italy 1148 01:08:39,080 --> 01:08:41,200 and I think we all still feel like that. 1149 01:08:41,240 --> 01:08:42,840 Everyone wants to go to Italy 1150 01:08:42,880 --> 01:08:47,400 and it's a place where just the joy in life is so important. 1151 01:08:48,720 --> 01:08:52,680 And I think it's tremendously liberating for Fanny, this trip. 1152 01:08:56,320 --> 01:08:57,520 (CRICKETS CHIRPING) 1153 01:08:57,560 --> 01:09:00,960 "The stars above and the lights of the city below, 1154 01:09:01,000 --> 01:09:03,920 the glow worms and a long trailing meteor 1155 01:09:03,960 --> 01:09:05,480 which shot across the sky, 1156 01:09:05,520 --> 01:09:09,960 all combined to stir the deepest emotion in us. 1157 01:09:10,000 --> 01:09:13,760 All these experiences have made me younger, not older. 1158 01:09:13,800 --> 01:09:17,160 Even as a child I was never praised as I have been here 1159 01:09:17,200 --> 01:09:20,000 and that it's pretty enjoyable, nobody can deny." 1160 01:09:21,120 --> 01:09:25,960 She brings with her not just her tremendous pianistic abilities, 1161 01:09:26,000 --> 01:09:29,920 but her knowledge of German music, of Bach, of Beethoven. 1162 01:09:29,960 --> 01:09:33,640 She performs five, six enormous Beethoven sonatas 1163 01:09:33,680 --> 01:09:37,320 in one afternoon for the group of musicians there. 1164 01:09:37,360 --> 01:09:39,880 She's also being appreciated 1165 01:09:39,920 --> 01:09:43,440 as a remarkable musician in her own right. 1166 01:09:43,480 --> 01:09:46,000 And she returns to Germany 1167 01:09:46,040 --> 01:09:49,240 knowing much more who she is as a musician. 1168 01:09:49,280 --> 01:09:50,880 (PIANO MUSIC) 1169 01:09:54,360 --> 01:09:57,240 'Back home in chilly grey Berlin, 1170 01:09:57,280 --> 01:09:59,880 Fanny cheers herself up by composing a song cycle 1171 01:09:59,920 --> 01:10:02,600 she calls Das Jahr, The Year. 1172 01:10:02,640 --> 01:10:06,000 Over an hour of music, which Wilhelm illustrates 1173 01:10:06,040 --> 01:10:08,280 with beautiful vignettes of their trip.' 1174 01:10:11,320 --> 01:10:14,320 This is extraordinary with these images. 1175 01:10:15,320 --> 01:10:16,360 Yes. 1176 01:10:16,400 --> 01:10:20,360 I love this opening, like a dream. 1177 01:10:20,400 --> 01:10:24,000 You can see the references to Italy that go throughout it. 1178 01:10:24,040 --> 01:10:27,640 So even though it is composed a year after Italy, 1179 01:10:27,680 --> 01:10:31,400 the experience of Italy certainly stays. 1180 01:10:31,440 --> 01:10:34,400 So it seems like this meant a lot to both of them. 1181 01:10:36,280 --> 01:10:39,840 It's a big piano cycle in 12 movements, 1182 01:10:39,880 --> 01:10:42,280 there's one for each month of the year. 1183 01:10:42,320 --> 01:10:44,760 The first movement, January, 1184 01:10:44,800 --> 01:10:47,440 also has the subtitle The Dream 1185 01:10:47,480 --> 01:10:50,600 and it really works as a kind of overture. 1186 01:10:50,640 --> 01:10:53,640 And what I think is so remarkable is from the start, 1187 01:10:53,680 --> 01:10:57,880 you can tell that this is the beginning of a big story. 1188 01:10:57,920 --> 01:10:59,520 ( 1189 01:11:12,320 --> 01:11:14,960 ROTHENBERG: There's something so incredibly romantic 1190 01:11:15,000 --> 01:11:17,960 and daring about The Year. 1191 01:11:18,000 --> 01:11:21,600 She doesn't perform The year for anyone 1192 01:11:21,640 --> 01:11:27,320 and I don't know whether she thought it was too out there, 1193 01:11:27,360 --> 01:11:28,960 too wild. 1194 01:11:29,000 --> 01:11:30,440 It's hard to say. 1195 01:11:34,560 --> 01:11:37,840 She ends the first movement on a big heroic note 1196 01:11:37,880 --> 01:11:40,400 and gives you a sense of the kind of virtuosity 1197 01:11:40,440 --> 01:11:42,640 that's going to come afterwards. 1198 01:11:48,720 --> 01:11:50,640 "Now I'm engaged in another small work 1199 01:11:50,680 --> 01:11:54,040 that's giving me much fun. Namely a series of 12 piano pieces 1200 01:11:54,080 --> 01:11:56,200 meant to depict the months of the year. 1201 01:11:57,240 --> 01:11:58,640 I'll make clean copies 1202 01:11:58,680 --> 01:12:00,960 and they'll be ornamented with vignettes 1203 01:12:01,000 --> 01:12:03,200 for the pleasure of others." 1204 01:12:03,240 --> 01:12:05,840 This is the only time she mentions Das Jahr, 1205 01:12:05,880 --> 01:12:09,840 which is an unarguable masterpiece. 1206 01:12:09,880 --> 01:12:13,680 And she just basically throws out this little remark about, 1207 01:12:13,720 --> 01:12:16,400 "I'm doing this little thing and it's going to be a lot of fun." 1208 01:12:16,440 --> 01:12:18,800 And I think it's something about Fanny 1209 01:12:18,840 --> 01:12:20,760 that I think is incredibly important, 1210 01:12:20,800 --> 01:12:23,400 incredibly familiar and completely infuriating, 1211 01:12:23,440 --> 01:12:27,240 which is that she cannot take herself seriously, 1212 01:12:27,280 --> 01:12:30,400 at least in public, as a creative artist. 1213 01:12:30,440 --> 01:12:32,400 In private, when she's working, 1214 01:12:32,440 --> 01:12:34,640 obviously she puts everything into it. 1215 01:12:34,680 --> 01:12:36,800 But as soon as she's with other people, 1216 01:12:36,840 --> 01:12:41,400 she wants to defang her formidableness. 1217 01:12:41,440 --> 01:12:46,120 She wants to defang and minimise the power and the force 1218 01:12:46,160 --> 01:12:48,840 of her creativity and her energy and her brilliance, 1219 01:12:48,880 --> 01:12:51,320 because somehow that might be threatening to people 1220 01:12:51,360 --> 01:12:52,560 or it might be alarming 1221 01:12:52,600 --> 01:12:54,400 or it might be, God forbid, unfeminine. 1222 01:12:54,440 --> 01:12:57,520 And yet, at some level, just like Fanny, 1223 01:12:57,560 --> 01:13:02,040 I think any woman who is seriously aspiring 1224 01:13:02,080 --> 01:13:03,920 to be a creative artist 1225 01:13:03,960 --> 01:13:07,560 takes it very, very seriously when they're at work. 1226 01:13:12,800 --> 01:13:14,640 (GENTLE STRINGS) 1227 01:13:17,920 --> 01:13:20,600 'Not long after Fanny returns from Italy, 1228 01:13:20,640 --> 01:13:22,520 her mother Lea dies. 1229 01:13:22,560 --> 01:13:24,800 Her father had died seven years earlier. 1230 01:13:26,280 --> 01:13:29,960 Fanny, not yet 40, wonders if she'll be next.' 1231 01:13:32,240 --> 01:13:34,200 BEER: In one of the letters from this time, 1232 01:13:34,240 --> 01:13:36,400 she's sorting through her mother's papers 1233 01:13:36,440 --> 01:13:39,200 and a mother who had come around to support her desire 1234 01:13:39,240 --> 01:13:41,200 to publish her work, her music. 1235 01:13:41,240 --> 01:13:44,880 And she says, "Who will remember me when I am forgotten?" 1236 01:13:46,960 --> 01:13:49,720 I think that's one of the things that pushed her 1237 01:13:49,760 --> 01:13:52,480 into getting this public identity, 1238 01:13:52,520 --> 01:13:55,400 to getting her music out there. "Who will remember me? 1239 01:13:55,440 --> 01:13:58,640 Not just remember me as a wife and a mother but as a composer?" 1240 01:13:58,680 --> 01:14:03,520 But in that same letter she writes, 1241 01:14:03,560 --> 01:14:05,760 "I hope I have a bit more time." 1242 01:14:05,800 --> 01:14:08,000 ( 1243 01:14:17,720 --> 01:14:22,040 TODD: I have here a facsimile of Fanny's autograph of the Notturno. 1244 01:14:22,080 --> 01:14:24,680 And what's remarkable about this 1245 01:14:24,720 --> 01:14:28,960 is that she actually notated a specific instruction 1246 01:14:29,000 --> 01:14:33,040 telling the pianist how to use the pedal in the Notturno. 1247 01:14:33,080 --> 01:14:36,240 One wonders, "Why did she write it down? 1248 01:14:36,280 --> 01:14:38,080 Who was going to be playing this music 1249 01:14:38,120 --> 01:14:39,920 if it weren't herself?" 1250 01:14:39,960 --> 01:14:45,240 So that to me tells me that she was a composer 1251 01:14:45,280 --> 01:14:49,360 who wanted her music to be heard and understood. 1252 01:14:49,400 --> 01:14:53,600 So it's like an instruction to a pianist 1253 01:14:53,640 --> 01:14:55,520 who someday would play this piece. 1254 01:15:08,960 --> 01:15:09,960 'By now, 1255 01:15:10,000 --> 01:15:12,480 Fanny doesn't have to go looking for a publisher. 1256 01:15:12,520 --> 01:15:14,440 After the success of her concerts, 1257 01:15:14,480 --> 01:15:17,920 publishers are coming to her begging for her works. 1258 01:15:17,960 --> 01:15:22,840 Finally, she makes up her mind to defy Felix and accept. 1259 01:15:22,880 --> 01:15:26,680 SCHMIDT-HENSEL: This is the diary from 1840 onwards 1260 01:15:26,720 --> 01:15:28,520 which she wrote. 1261 01:15:28,560 --> 01:15:34,520 I would try to find the page from 1846. 1262 01:15:35,480 --> 01:15:37,280 It should be there. 1263 01:15:37,320 --> 01:15:40,280 MACE: I'm also looking at the way she wrote it. 1264 01:15:40,320 --> 01:15:43,960 The importance of these words jumps off the page. 1265 01:15:46,080 --> 01:15:47,520 So what's she saying here? 1266 01:15:47,560 --> 01:15:51,840 She's saying that she has decided to accept the offers 1267 01:15:51,880 --> 01:15:53,880 of some Berlin publishers 1268 01:15:53,920 --> 01:15:55,680 who have been approaching her for a while 1269 01:15:55,720 --> 01:15:57,520 asking her to publish. 1270 01:15:57,560 --> 01:16:00,360 So a huge moment. Huge moment. 1271 01:16:00,400 --> 01:16:02,360 (SOFT PIANO MUSIC) 1272 01:16:07,520 --> 01:16:10,160 CITRON: "I wouldn't expect you to read this rubbish now, 1273 01:16:10,200 --> 01:16:11,680 busy as you are, 1274 01:16:11,720 --> 01:16:14,560 if I didn't have to tell you something. 1275 01:16:14,600 --> 01:16:17,560 But since I know from the start that you won't like it, 1276 01:16:17,600 --> 01:16:20,520 it's a bit awkward to get underway. 1277 01:16:20,560 --> 01:16:24,440 So, laugh at me or not as you wish, 1278 01:16:24,480 --> 01:16:27,400 I'm afraid of my brother at age 40 1279 01:16:27,440 --> 01:16:30,720 as I was of Father at age 14. 1280 01:16:30,760 --> 01:16:32,760 I thus feel rather..." 1281 01:16:32,800 --> 01:16:36,240 there she wrote that in English, "uncomfortable." 1282 01:16:36,280 --> 01:16:39,080 "In a word, I'm beginning to publish." 1283 01:16:39,880 --> 01:16:44,360 And then she goes on to say, and this is really interesting, 1284 01:16:45,680 --> 01:16:49,280 that if things go well with the publishing 1285 01:16:49,320 --> 01:16:53,200 that everyone in the family should know 1286 01:16:53,240 --> 01:16:56,880 that she was not looking for professional fame. 1287 01:16:56,920 --> 01:16:58,240 It's amazing, really. 1288 01:16:58,280 --> 01:17:00,400 It's an apology to say, 1289 01:17:00,440 --> 01:17:04,680 "Don't worry, I didn't cause this. I just want you to know that." 1290 01:17:04,720 --> 01:17:07,080 So it says a lot about the role of a woman, 1291 01:17:07,120 --> 01:17:10,240 an educated, talented woman, that this seemed improper. 1292 01:17:11,880 --> 01:17:14,680 BEER: She's 40 and she acknowledges 1293 01:17:14,720 --> 01:17:17,320 she's as nervous standing up to Felix 1294 01:17:17,360 --> 01:17:18,920 as she was when she was 14 1295 01:17:18,960 --> 01:17:22,400 and she didn't stand up to her father, Abraham. 1296 01:17:22,440 --> 01:17:25,480 And that tension between the girl of 14 1297 01:17:25,520 --> 01:17:29,000 and the woman of 40, the journey she's been on there, 1298 01:17:29,040 --> 01:17:32,920 and finally, she's ready to step up and say, 1299 01:17:32,960 --> 01:17:36,200 "This is important to me. I'm standing up to you." 1300 01:17:36,240 --> 01:17:38,640 She's on her way Felix or no Felix. 1301 01:17:38,680 --> 01:17:41,000 ( 1302 01:17:44,920 --> 01:17:49,040 'Having made up her mind to publish, the floodgates open for Fanny. 1303 01:17:49,080 --> 01:17:51,640 She writes 51 works in a year. 1304 01:17:51,680 --> 01:17:55,360 She begins by publishing songs, as this is where the market is. 1305 01:17:55,400 --> 01:17:59,280 She writes in her diary, "I feel newly-born."' 1306 01:17:59,320 --> 01:18:00,760 (UPBEAT PIANO MUSIC) 1307 01:18:06,360 --> 01:18:08,760 And here we have a facsimile of the title page 1308 01:18:08,800 --> 01:18:10,920 of the first edition of her Opus One, 1309 01:18:10,960 --> 01:18:15,200 which are six songs for a voice with the accompaniment of the piano. 1310 01:18:15,240 --> 01:18:17,360 Her name, Fanny Hensel, 1311 01:18:17,400 --> 01:18:20,120 but then there is this 'geboren' of Mendelssohn Bartholdy. 1312 01:18:20,160 --> 01:18:22,000 But at least there is her name 1313 01:18:22,040 --> 01:18:25,600 and it is in bigger print than Mendelssohn Bartholdy. 1314 01:18:25,640 --> 01:18:28,240 She is emerging as a published composer. 1315 01:18:28,280 --> 01:18:31,600 This must have been extraordinary for her to see this. 1316 01:18:39,960 --> 01:18:43,000 'The Easter Sonata manuscript had been auctioned, 1317 01:18:43,040 --> 01:18:45,440 but nobody knew where it was. 1318 01:18:45,480 --> 01:18:49,080 Angela had almost lost hope of ever proving Fanny's authorship. 1319 01:18:50,040 --> 01:18:52,960 Then, years later, in 2021, 1320 01:18:53,000 --> 01:18:55,600 she got a call from Rochester, New York.' 1321 01:18:58,600 --> 01:19:02,720 LEHMAN: Well, I used to do a lot of painting. 1322 01:19:02,760 --> 01:19:07,280 So I'm painting away to Percy Faith and his orchestra. 1323 01:19:08,400 --> 01:19:12,200 ( in C Major, Op. 48) 1324 01:19:12,240 --> 01:19:14,200 Wow. 1325 01:19:14,240 --> 01:19:16,440 What is THAT? 1326 01:19:16,480 --> 01:19:19,040 Holy crap! 1327 01:19:19,080 --> 01:19:21,000 I've never heard anything like it. 1328 01:19:23,480 --> 01:19:27,240 On came a piece of classical music. 1329 01:19:27,280 --> 01:19:30,080 I was about 15, I guess. 1330 01:19:30,120 --> 01:19:31,240 I'd lived that long 1331 01:19:31,280 --> 01:19:35,440 without ever hearing a note of classical music. 1332 01:19:35,480 --> 01:19:37,240 It turned out to be Tchaikovsky. 1333 01:19:37,280 --> 01:19:39,320 I can't remember what piece. 1334 01:19:39,360 --> 01:19:42,800 So I started to listen to classical music 1335 01:19:42,840 --> 01:19:49,560 and I discovered that composers put a great deal more on paper 1336 01:19:49,600 --> 01:19:51,440 than notes. 1337 01:19:51,480 --> 01:19:54,480 And so, for over 50 years now, 1338 01:19:54,520 --> 01:19:57,120 I've collected music manuscripts. 1339 01:19:58,120 --> 01:20:01,520 I would peruse the sales rooms 1340 01:20:01,560 --> 01:20:04,320 three or four times a year, 1341 01:20:04,360 --> 01:20:06,720 so I looked at the Drouot auction site 1342 01:20:06,760 --> 01:20:09,440 and here was this Mendelssohn thing. 1343 01:20:10,320 --> 01:20:11,800 What the heck is that? 1344 01:20:11,840 --> 01:20:15,880 So to make a long story short, I bought the manuscript. 1345 01:20:17,560 --> 01:20:19,760 And the rest of the story is, 1346 01:20:21,160 --> 01:20:24,840 my dear wife, Marie, went to work. 1347 01:20:27,680 --> 01:20:30,160 'Robin's wife Marie is a musicologist. 1348 01:20:30,200 --> 01:20:32,000 And she'd spent eight years 1349 01:20:32,040 --> 01:20:34,520 working on the manuscript in their home. 1350 01:20:34,560 --> 01:20:37,560 Comparing every detail to Fanny's other works, 1351 01:20:37,600 --> 01:20:41,400 to prepare a definitive edition, for publication in Fanny's name. 1352 01:20:43,880 --> 01:20:48,000 Finally, Angela has a chance to see the manuscript properly 1353 01:20:48,040 --> 01:20:50,560 and prove to the world that it's Fanny's work.' 1354 01:20:55,640 --> 01:20:59,560 MARIE ROLF: Here she is. It's a special day for Fanny Hensel. 1355 01:20:59,600 --> 01:21:00,680 Yes it is. 1356 01:21:00,720 --> 01:21:02,520 May I have a look? Yeah. 1357 01:21:04,800 --> 01:21:08,880 On the other side you may see a package 1358 01:21:08,920 --> 01:21:11,680 from the people who... The auction house. 1359 01:21:11,720 --> 01:21:13,880 Yeah, who sold it. 1360 01:21:13,920 --> 01:21:16,480 And then, 1361 01:21:16,520 --> 01:21:20,680 we have the mylar cover 1362 01:21:20,720 --> 01:21:25,480 and a bunch of acid free paper to protect it and there she is. 1363 01:21:25,520 --> 01:21:27,480 (INHALES SHARPLY) Wow. 1364 01:21:27,520 --> 01:21:29,080 (BOTH LAUGH) 1365 01:21:29,120 --> 01:21:33,480 When I saw this for the first time in 2010, 1366 01:21:33,520 --> 01:21:35,600 I had just 45 minutes to look at it, 1367 01:21:35,640 --> 01:21:38,440 so a very short amount of time. 1368 01:21:38,480 --> 01:21:42,360 I knew I had to go in with four really specific questions 1369 01:21:42,400 --> 01:21:45,320 to prove what I believed was true. 1370 01:21:45,360 --> 01:21:47,680 And the first one was, does it have a title? 1371 01:21:47,720 --> 01:21:50,560 And yes, it does, "Ostersonate" right there. 1372 01:21:50,600 --> 01:21:52,440 Another thing I was looking at 1373 01:21:52,480 --> 01:21:57,080 was where she writes in the top corner 1374 01:21:57,120 --> 01:22:00,320 the dates of when she started and finished movements. 1375 01:22:00,360 --> 01:22:02,640 That was an absolute joy to find 1376 01:22:02,680 --> 01:22:04,680 because I didn't know I was going to find that. 1377 01:22:04,720 --> 01:22:06,840 I love that she gave us those clues. 1378 01:22:06,880 --> 01:22:08,640 Felix didn't do that kind of thing. 1379 01:22:08,680 --> 01:22:12,480 At the very end she writes... 1380 01:22:12,520 --> 01:22:15,680 I don't wanna... I'll be very careful with it. 1381 01:22:15,720 --> 01:22:21,720 The 10th of May, 1828, 'abends', evening, half to ten. 1382 01:22:21,760 --> 01:22:24,240 So she is at home, 1383 01:22:24,280 --> 01:22:27,600 she tended to write and play in the company of other people, 1384 01:22:27,640 --> 01:22:31,360 just like we saw in that diary entry from 1829. 1385 01:22:31,400 --> 01:22:33,880 She gives this huge list of what they did, 1386 01:22:33,920 --> 01:22:36,040 who they saw, the baptism they went to, 1387 01:22:36,080 --> 01:22:38,560 who came over for lunch, who came over for dinner, 1388 01:22:38,600 --> 01:22:40,000 who stayed for a while. 1389 01:22:40,040 --> 01:22:43,440 And then she writes at the very end, 1390 01:22:43,480 --> 01:22:45,080 "I played my Easter Sonata." 1391 01:22:45,120 --> 01:22:47,120 "I played MY Easter Sonata." Yes. 1392 01:22:47,160 --> 01:22:48,400 And then, 1393 01:22:48,440 --> 01:22:52,120 I wanted to look at the bottom right-hand corner of the pages 1394 01:22:52,160 --> 01:22:55,840 because that was one of the biggest clues in the records. 1395 01:22:55,880 --> 01:22:57,760 And there's my number, 89. 1396 01:22:57,800 --> 01:23:00,000 ROLF: Yes, until 110. 1397 01:23:00,040 --> 01:23:01,800 That's right, oh, my goodness. 1398 01:23:01,840 --> 01:23:05,040 So when I saw that, I really knew. It just hit me like a ton of bricks. 1399 01:23:05,080 --> 01:23:07,320 This is the missing manuscript. 1400 01:23:07,360 --> 01:23:10,080 This is the Easter Sonata that we're looking for. 1401 01:23:10,120 --> 01:23:11,840 (PIANO TUNNING) 1402 01:23:19,880 --> 01:23:21,920 'In October, 2022, 1403 01:23:21,960 --> 01:23:25,760 Isata was preparing to perform Marie's brand-new edition 1404 01:23:25,800 --> 01:23:28,960 of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's Easter Sonata.' 1405 01:23:32,160 --> 01:23:33,640 Here we are. KANNEH-MASON: Yes. 1406 01:23:33,680 --> 01:23:37,200 194 years after Fanny wrote this. 1407 01:23:37,240 --> 01:23:38,240 Yes, we are. 1408 01:23:38,280 --> 01:23:42,360 And 14 years since Angela started looking for it. 1409 01:23:42,400 --> 01:23:43,440 Yes. 1410 01:23:43,480 --> 01:23:46,200 And eight years since Marie started working on it. 1411 01:23:46,240 --> 01:23:48,520 And how many months have you been working on it? 1412 01:23:48,560 --> 01:23:49,680 Yes. And here we are. 1413 01:23:49,720 --> 01:23:51,120 Yes, yeah. 1414 01:23:51,160 --> 01:23:55,000 It's been such a journey in so many ways. 1415 01:23:55,040 --> 01:23:58,720 I feel very excited, a bit nervous, 1416 01:23:58,760 --> 01:24:00,480 but those two things go hand in hand. 1417 01:24:00,520 --> 01:24:05,960 And I can feel the weight of all that's gone into this piece 1418 01:24:06,000 --> 01:24:07,400 in terms of composing it 1419 01:24:07,440 --> 01:24:10,520 and then rediscovering it and working on it. 1420 01:24:10,560 --> 01:24:13,360 I'm just so excited to finally be performing it 1421 01:24:13,400 --> 01:24:15,360 in front of a live audience as well. 1422 01:24:22,960 --> 01:24:26,080 I just wonder whether you ever think about what you want to do 1423 01:24:26,120 --> 01:24:28,600 or be in your life in the longer term, 1424 01:24:28,640 --> 01:24:29,960 or are you just young enough 1425 01:24:30,000 --> 01:24:32,400 that you are just focused on what is happening now? 1426 01:24:32,440 --> 01:24:36,440 I think I feel a sense of panic a lot of the time 1427 01:24:36,480 --> 01:24:38,480 because I know very much what I enjoy. 1428 01:24:38,520 --> 01:24:41,360 I know I enjoy performing, I know I enjoy composing. 1429 01:24:41,400 --> 01:24:44,160 I know that I care a lot about the people in my life. 1430 01:24:46,720 --> 01:24:52,320 And, strangely, I tend to worry about death quite a lot 1431 01:24:52,360 --> 01:24:54,640 maybe since I was about 20, 1432 01:24:54,680 --> 01:24:57,440 I've often felt that life was really short 1433 01:24:57,480 --> 01:24:59,480 and that anyone could die at any point. 1434 01:24:59,520 --> 01:25:01,240 'Cause often I feel very stressed 1435 01:25:01,280 --> 01:25:04,200 that there's so many things I want to do in my life 1436 01:25:04,240 --> 01:25:06,240 and there's not really enough time. 1437 01:25:09,920 --> 01:25:11,160 (STOPS PLAYING) 1438 01:25:12,200 --> 01:25:14,000 (SOFT CLASSICAL MUSIC) 1439 01:25:19,680 --> 01:25:21,600 'In May, 1847, 1440 01:25:21,640 --> 01:25:24,320 Fanny is rehearsing her choir for a performance, 1441 01:25:24,360 --> 01:25:26,400 when her arms go numb. 1442 01:25:26,440 --> 01:25:29,760 This has happened to her before, so she's not too worried. 1443 01:25:29,800 --> 01:25:32,160 But this time, it doesn't go away.' 1444 01:25:33,600 --> 01:25:35,240 TODD: She suddenly felt faint 1445 01:25:35,280 --> 01:25:37,120 and she had to leave the rehearsal 1446 01:25:37,160 --> 01:25:41,440 and she told them to continue rehearsing, which they did. 1447 01:25:41,480 --> 01:25:45,120 She listened to it from an adjacent room 1448 01:25:45,160 --> 01:25:50,680 and felt progressively more and more ill and died that night. 1449 01:25:50,720 --> 01:25:54,520 She has a stroke, like her mother did just a few years earlier, 1450 01:25:54,560 --> 01:25:56,760 and she's 41. 1451 01:25:56,800 --> 01:26:02,360 And Wilhelm is devastated, 1452 01:26:02,400 --> 01:26:04,840 I mean, broken, broken by this. 1453 01:26:04,880 --> 01:26:09,320 He does what he does at these moments, 1454 01:26:09,360 --> 01:26:12,840 he can't speak but he can pick up his pen and he can draw. 1455 01:26:12,880 --> 01:26:18,240 And he sketches his beloved wife in peace, in death. 1456 01:26:19,360 --> 01:26:22,880 It is such a beautiful portrait. 1457 01:26:24,920 --> 01:26:27,720 But there's such love in that and such grief. 1458 01:26:28,560 --> 01:26:33,040 1459 01:26:33,080 --> 01:26:34,800 'In this final portrait, 1460 01:26:34,840 --> 01:26:37,200 Wilhelm gives Fanny a laurel wreath, 1461 01:26:37,240 --> 01:26:39,760 symbol of the artist triumphant.' 1462 01:26:39,800 --> 01:26:45,520 1463 01:26:53,760 --> 01:26:55,080 (MUSIC ENDS) 1464 01:26:57,760 --> 01:27:00,280 Felix at the time was in Frankfurt 1465 01:27:00,320 --> 01:27:03,480 and he received the news a few days later. 1466 01:27:03,520 --> 01:27:05,560 And when he received the news 1467 01:27:05,600 --> 01:27:08,720 he shrieked and collapsed to the floor. 1468 01:27:08,760 --> 01:27:10,880 For a while he couldn't compose a note. 1469 01:27:10,920 --> 01:27:15,360 He writes to Wilhelm to say, 1470 01:27:15,400 --> 01:27:21,240 "If my writing causes you to shed tears, 1471 01:27:21,280 --> 01:27:23,960 put away the writing, we have nothing to do but shed tears." 1472 01:27:24,000 --> 01:27:26,400 ( In F Minor, Op. 80) 1473 01:27:33,560 --> 01:27:35,960 "We have nothing left now but to weep. 1474 01:27:36,000 --> 01:27:37,680 We've been so happy together 1475 01:27:37,720 --> 01:27:39,760 but a sadder life is beginning now. 1476 01:27:42,040 --> 01:27:43,920 You made her happy always. 1477 01:27:45,360 --> 01:27:46,560 I thank you for it. 1478 01:27:48,480 --> 01:27:50,040 But with bitter pangs of regret 1479 01:27:50,080 --> 01:27:53,480 that I did not do more myself for her happiness, 1480 01:27:53,520 --> 01:27:55,200 did not see her oftener. 1481 01:27:56,440 --> 01:27:59,440 This is a changed world for us all now 1482 01:27:59,480 --> 01:28:01,680 but we must try to get used to the change. 1483 01:28:03,320 --> 01:28:05,920 Though by the time we've got used to it, 1484 01:28:05,960 --> 01:28:08,040 our lives may be over, too." 1485 01:28:10,320 --> 01:28:12,840 (CHOIR SINGING IN GERMAN) 1486 01:28:17,400 --> 01:28:21,080 'Less than six months later, Felix too is dead. 1487 01:28:24,120 --> 01:28:26,040 When he missed Fanny's last birthday, 1488 01:28:26,080 --> 01:28:29,720 he promised, "Next year we'll be together." 1489 01:28:29,760 --> 01:28:31,200 He keeps his word.' 1490 01:28:32,360 --> 01:28:34,240 (CHOIR SINGING IN GERMAN) 1491 01:29:17,280 --> 01:29:20,840 LEHMAN: People, when they own manuscripts, they think, 1492 01:29:20,880 --> 01:29:24,200 "Well, if somebody lays eyes on it now, it's less valuable." 1493 01:29:24,240 --> 01:29:26,560 And I've always found that quite odd. 1494 01:29:26,600 --> 01:29:28,440 I think it's the opposite. 1495 01:29:30,280 --> 01:29:32,920 The manuscripts are too important 1496 01:29:32,960 --> 01:29:36,160 for me to keep in a drawer. 1497 01:29:37,680 --> 01:29:43,480 And 50 years ago I went to the Morgan Library 1498 01:29:43,520 --> 01:29:47,560 and put all these things on deposit 1499 01:29:47,600 --> 01:29:49,960 and they've been there ever since. 1500 01:29:50,000 --> 01:29:51,800 (GENTLE PIANO) 1501 01:30:03,320 --> 01:30:05,600 'The critical edition of the Easter Sonata 1502 01:30:05,640 --> 01:30:08,320 has finally restored Fanny to her rightful place 1503 01:30:08,360 --> 01:30:10,360 among the musical greats. 1504 01:30:10,400 --> 01:30:13,760 Meanwhile, the manuscript joined Bach, Beethoven, 1505 01:30:13,800 --> 01:30:14,880 and her brother 1506 01:30:14,920 --> 01:30:17,760 in the world's biggest private manuscript collection, 1507 01:30:17,800 --> 01:30:20,400 in the Morgan Library in New York.' 1508 01:30:20,440 --> 01:30:22,320 ROBINSON McCLELLAN: Very excited to have 1509 01:30:22,360 --> 01:30:25,360 this Fanny Mendelssohn manuscript 1510 01:30:25,400 --> 01:30:28,240 revealing for the first time here at the Morgan Library. 1511 01:30:28,280 --> 01:30:31,520 And it's always fun unpacking these new arrivals. 1512 01:30:31,560 --> 01:30:32,720 Let's see here. 1513 01:30:41,880 --> 01:30:44,360 It's so beautiful. 1828. 1514 01:30:45,520 --> 01:30:47,280 I love seeing these manuscripts. 1515 01:30:47,320 --> 01:30:53,120 The careful pen strokes and of course corrections, 1516 01:30:53,160 --> 01:30:56,040 when you see the wonderful paste overs 1517 01:30:56,080 --> 01:30:59,480 where they made a mistake and corrected it. 1518 01:31:01,960 --> 01:31:05,960 It's wonderful to have this manuscript here. 1519 01:31:06,000 --> 01:31:09,760 We're going to be sharing it with everyone that we can. 1520 01:31:09,800 --> 01:31:13,560 We're very proud that Fanny's manuscript joins 1521 01:31:13,600 --> 01:31:16,320 an august and full collection 1522 01:31:16,360 --> 01:31:20,320 and really takes its place among all these treasures. 1523 01:31:20,360 --> 01:31:21,760 We are very happy. 1524 01:31:21,800 --> 01:31:24,000 (PIANO MUSIC) 1525 01:31:29,520 --> 01:31:32,440 (SUSTAINED CHORD) 1526 01:31:37,880 --> 01:31:39,680 (MUSIC ENDS) 1527 01:31:42,560 --> 01:31:44,040 (DISTANT CHATTER) 1528 01:31:50,480 --> 01:31:53,880 PARKER-LANGSTON: There's a beautiful term in landscape gardening, 1529 01:31:53,920 --> 01:31:57,680 'desire line', which is when people deviate from... 1530 01:31:57,720 --> 01:31:59,800 the prescribed path 1531 01:31:59,840 --> 01:32:03,080 and their footsteps start to forge a new path 1532 01:32:03,120 --> 01:32:05,760 that other people can follow that begins really faintly. 1533 01:32:05,800 --> 01:32:08,280 But then, as people walk it time and time again, 1534 01:32:08,320 --> 01:32:10,720 it becomes more and more well-established 1535 01:32:10,760 --> 01:32:12,400 and then people have a choice. 1536 01:32:12,440 --> 01:32:17,520 And she's one of the first footsteps on this path 1537 01:32:17,560 --> 01:32:21,400 for a woman in music to be a composer, 1538 01:32:21,440 --> 01:32:23,640 or a serious composer, 1539 01:32:23,680 --> 01:32:28,560 that she not only broke that ground during her life 1540 01:32:28,600 --> 01:32:31,600 but has continued to inspire people to do ever since. 1541 01:32:31,640 --> 01:32:33,480 (APPLAUSE) 1542 01:33:17,840 --> 01:33:19,720 (PLAYING FASTER) 1543 01:33:26,680 --> 01:33:30,880 TODD: Just that she could produce nearly 500 compositions 1544 01:33:30,920 --> 01:33:34,560 in just a few short decades against the various odds 1545 01:33:34,600 --> 01:33:35,880 that she had to contend with. 1546 01:33:35,920 --> 01:33:40,000 And, when you play it and listen to it and come to know it, 1547 01:33:40,040 --> 01:33:42,880 you know that it is authentic genuine music, 1548 01:33:42,920 --> 01:33:45,280 and that's the best that music can be. 1549 01:33:45,320 --> 01:33:46,920 (MUSIC CONTINUES) 1550 01:34:23,360 --> 01:34:25,680 'My great-great-great grandmother 1551 01:34:25,720 --> 01:34:27,880 would probably be amazed and delighted 1552 01:34:27,920 --> 01:34:31,560 that the labour of so many people has brought her music back to life. 1553 01:34:31,600 --> 01:34:33,840 And she's just one of countless women 1554 01:34:33,880 --> 01:34:36,680 whose stories and creative works have been overlooked 1555 01:34:36,720 --> 01:34:38,440 in the established histories. 1556 01:34:39,480 --> 01:34:41,000 I still can't quite believe 1557 01:34:41,040 --> 01:34:43,680 that she managed to write so much astonishing music 1558 01:34:43,720 --> 01:34:46,800 in so few years and against such odds. 1559 01:34:48,120 --> 01:34:50,520 But now that Fanny's back in the world, 1560 01:34:50,560 --> 01:34:54,720 her example is there to inspire and encourage others.' 1561 01:34:54,760 --> 01:34:56,920 ( 1562 01:35:39,160 --> 01:35:42,040 (GENTLE MELODY) 1563 01:35:56,920 --> 01:35:59,080 (SUSTAINED CHORD) 1564 01:36:05,920 --> 01:36:07,920 (APPLAUSE) 1565 01:36:28,800 --> 01:36:30,720 (APPLAUSE FADES OUT) 1566 01:36:30,760 --> 01:36:35,480 ( H-U 277: IV. Allegro Very Lively) 1567 01:36:55,040 --> 01:36:56,480 (MUSIC FADES TO SILENCE) 1568 01:36:56,520 --> 01:36:59,246 Subtitles by Sky Access Services www.skyaccessibility.sky