Easter Sonata Article

Rediscovering Fanny Mendelssohn's Easter Sonata

In 2009, as a graduate student in musicology at Duke University, Angela Mace first heard a scratchy 1972 recording by the French pianist Eric Heidsieck of a Sonate de Pâques . . . by Felix Mendelssohn. She knew, however, that Fanny Mendelssohn (not yet Fanny Hensel, since she wasn’t married until October 1829), had written about an Easter Sonata in April 1829.  She resolved to get to the bottom of the story and started carefully combing through all available letters, diaries, and archival records to see if she could establish a documentary trail. She was able to find enough documentary evidence to strongly suggest that the Easter Sonata was by Fanny, not Felix, but until a manuscript could be found and identified, it was only a strong scholarly hunch. She visited the Staatstbibliothek zu Berlin to view a bound manuscript collection that had reportedly once contained the Easter Sonata and saw that the pages numbered 89-110 were indeed missing, but no one could tell her anything about where the mysterious manuscript might be.

Angela was at a bit of a brick wall at this point, until she started talking to then newly hired professor of music composition at Duke University, John Supko. He had done his Fulbright Study at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, and she knew that Eric Heidsieck had taught at that same institution. She asked John Supko if the name “Heidsieck” sounded familiar; he thought it did, and a few days later emailed Angela with the contact information for Eric Heidsieck. A few days after sending a letter of inquiry to Heidsieck, Angela received a response:  Heidsieck would be delighted to talk and share more about his work with the Easter Sonata! Angela arranged to travel to Paris to meet with Heidsieck in person, only expecting to be able to hear about his performance and to learn more about the sonata. A few days before the trip, though, she asked Heidsieck on the phone if it would be possible to see the manuscript. A few hours later, Heidsieck returned her call: he had been able to get in touch with the owner, whom he knew personally, and had arranged a short visit for both of them with M. Coudert.

Thus, on a beautiful spring day in Paris, Angela Mace and Eric Heidsieck were visiting the offices of the Cassiopée record label in a dusty room behind a theatre off the Champs-Élysées. The owner, M. Henri-Jacques Coudert, handed Angela the manuscript. She took it carefully, pulled up a chair to lay it on, and carefully turned each page. First, she saw that the title was indeed written on the cover: Ostersonate (Easter Sonata). Then, she saw that the date was one year earlier than previously thought: 1828. She saw that the manuscript was in Fanny’s handwriting, and showed numerous personal traits of her compositional practice. Finally, she saw that the page numbers that were missing from the manuscript in Berlin were on the lower right-hand corners of the pages. This work was most certainly the long-lost Easter Sonata of Fanny Mendelssohn.

The manuscript was now rediscovered, but its new story in the 21st century was just beginning. In 2012, the work received its world premiere by Andrea Lam as a work of Fanny Mendelssohn at Duke University as part of a day-long symposium investigating Fanny's life and work. In 2017, the sonata received its UK Premiere and international broadcast premiere by Sofya Gulyak as part of BBC Radio 3's International Women's Day celebrations. The story was featured in numerous news outlets; listed below are several articles and interviews.

The story of the Easter Sonata manuscript now finds a satisfying conclusion: the autograph manuscript that Angela saw in 2010 went on auction a few years later. Robert Lehman, well-known music autograph collector, came forward some years later as the new owner of the manuscript. Marie Rolf, professor emeritus at the Eastman School of Music and editor of dozens of Debussy’s works, took on the challenge to make a critical edition and full facsimile of the Easter Sonata, which is now available from Baerenreiter. And, finally, the autograph manuscript was put on loan to the Pierpont Morgan library, where it can be viewed, appreciated, and become the subject of even more analysis and conversation.

• BBC Radio 3 Interview, “In Tune”

• The Telegraph

• The Guardian

• The Washington Post

• The Smithsonian Magazine

Where can I get a copy of the Easter Sonata?
The Critical Edition of the Easter Sonata, edited by Marie Rolf, is available for purchase here.