Ten Piano Pieces 1836-1837

HenselPushers’ debut cycle

Fanny Hensel had begun composing in her early teens, and had some of her compositions published under her younger brother Felix’s name. But it wasn’t until she was in her early 30s, after the death of her father, that she seriously considered publishing works under her own name. She showed this brilliant set of ten piano works to a publisher, but asked for her brother’s blessing to go forward with publication. Felix refused to urge her to publish, later telling their mother privately that he would support Fanny if she should decide to publish her works, but would not be the one to push her to do so. A decade later, Fanny did finally begin to publish her works in her own name, but by then this cycle had been set aside. Only number 2 of this cycle (H301) would be published during her lifetime, as one of four solo piano pieces in her opus 2.

Listen to this playlist on the HenselPushers YouTube channel