Following an acclaimed debut on Piano Classics, dedicated to Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s piano sonatas, Gaia Sokoli addresses perhaps her most individual work for piano. She pairs the cycle of Das Jahr with three Charakterstücke from 1846, never previously recorded. There appears to be no precedent for the form of Das Jahr – 12 character-pieces, each dedicated to a month of the year, concluding with a Postlude – which Fanny composed a full 35 years before Tchaikovsky wrote his celebrated piano cycle of The Seasons Op.37a (1875-76).
The genesis of Das Jahr dates from a trip to Italy in 1839-40. Fanny accomplished a personal and indeed ‘modern’ union of notes, images and words. Her idiomatic writing for the piano encompasses a full spectrum of imagery, evoking mandolins (in June), horns (August), bells (July), and the flow of a Tyrolean river in September, coupled with verses from Goethe: ‘Flow, flow, dear river / I will never become happy.’ Thematic, rhythmic and coloristic elements recur through the course of Das Jahr, lending it a persuasive unity. Listening to the 13 pieces in sequence allows the listener to immerse themselves in Fanny’s poetic world: an intimate diary in sound expressed in an ‘emotional dictionary’ of great intensity.
Gaia Sokoli completes this illuminating album with three Charakterstücke H414, H442 and H452. They were composed in 1846: a fruitful year for the composer, in which her creativity was perhaps stimulated by the first appearance in print of her music. They demonstrate the finesse of her technique, while also indicating a stylistic evolution in their more advanced harmonies and less constrained swings of expression when compared with Das Jahr.
Critical praise for Gaia Sokoli on Piano Classics
‘She gives these sonatas the drive and grace they need, with radiant tone and fluid command of rhythm.’ Diapason, December 2021
‘Fanny Mendelssohn has found a formidable champion in young Italian pianist Gaia Sokoli… this kind of playing makes us listen with heightened respect—and heightened excitement… what most characterizes these performances is their underlying ebullience… First-rate sound rounds out an auspicious introduction to a pianist to watch.’ Fanfare, May 2022
‘[Sokoli] is an outstanding artist who plays these works with fervor and commitment. She has a clear vision of how this music is supposed to go, understands the style, and plays it with exactly the right combination of forward momentum and lyrical effusion.’ Art Music Lounge, 2021
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847) still awaits a full appreciation of her legacy as a composer. Four years the elder of her brother Felix, she shared his rich cultural education.
Like him, she studied piano with Ludwig Berger and composition with Karl Zelter, who introduced her to Baroque polyphony and Classical-era forms. In maturity, however, Fanny was compelled – not least by Felix himself – to suppress her muse for the sake of fulfilling ‘womanly’ duties to the home and the family, especially once she had married the painter Wilhelm Hensel in 1829. She continued nonetheless to write music in the ‘private’ realm of piano and chamber pieces, supported and encouraged by her husband.
Following a Piano Classics album dedicated to Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s piano sonatas, Gaia Sokoli addresses perhaps her most individual work for piano. She pairs the cycle of Das Jahr with three Charakterstücke from 1846, never previously recorded. The form of Das Jahr - 12 character-pieces, each dedicated to a month of the year, concluding with a Postlude - is a novelty, later followed by Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons.
Brilliantly played by young Italian pianist Gaia Sokoli, whose previous recording of Fanny Mendelssohn received glowing 5-star reviews in the international press.
