Hensel: Easter Sonata

Composed in 1828, Fanny Hensel's Easter Sonata was for almost two centuries believed to be the work of her brother Felix Mendelssohn, and was even recorded under his name in 1972. Only in 2010 did musicologist Angela Mace Christian establish beyond doubt that the sonata was Hensel's own. This Bärenreiter Urtext edition is the first scholarly edition of the work, prepared from the composer's autograph (now in the Robert Owen Lehman Collection) and edited by Marie Rolf of the Eastman School of Music. Cast in four movements, the sonata moves between abstract writing and music tied to the Easter narrative, and stands as one of the most ambitious piano works of the early Romantic period. This is the practical performance score.