Search - Joanne Polk :: The Piano Sings - The Piano Music of Fanny Mendelssohn

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was an extraordinary woman blessed with intellectual gifts, musical talent, and the privileges of a close family and wealthy upbringing. But her life was also tempered by struggles with anti-Semitism, the difficulties of conversion and assimilation, early 19th century Jewish and Prussian paternalistic ideals, and conflicting messages from her family. As a child, she was encouraged to go as far as her talent would take her, but, once she got married and had a child, she was expected to lay aside her musical gifts in favor of more mundane household hold tasks. The fact that she was ultimately unable to do this is a gift to us. The body of work contained on this double CD carries in it all the longing, doubts, passion, struggle, love, joy and brilliance of her life and career. Some of these compositions have only recently been made available to the public. Here are a collection of 32 piano works, some of which have never been released on CD, by the sister of Felix Mendelssohn.Pianist Joanne Polk has been catapulted into the public eye with her recordings of the complete piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944). Ms. Polk celebrated the centennial of Beach's Piano Concerto in C sharp minor by giving the work its London premiere with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Center under the baton of Paul Goodwin. A few days later, Ms. Polk performed the Piano Concerto with the Women's Philharmonic in San Francisco with conductor Apo Hsu in a performance described as 'brilliant' by critic Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle. The first recording in the Beach series, By The Still Waters, received the 1998 INDIE award for best solo recording.