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June 28, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels March 9, 2004 Mendelssohn revisited By Steve Zimmerman Ashland Daily Tidings Fanny Mendelssohn may have been even more talented than her brother Felix. But no one knew it until her classical piano works were uncovered with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Maureen Thompson Phillips performs a piano recital at Philip and Ruth Lang's house Sunday afternoon. Satsuki Doi | Ashland Daily Tidings Now, 157 years after her death, the works are receiving new attention from Ashland classical pianist Maureen Thompson Phillips. She played pieces from her upcoming German recital for the first time in public at the home of Philip and Ruth Lang on Sunday. It gave her a chance to perform the pieces in front of an audience. Phillips is about to embark on a glorious adventure which will take her to Leipzig, Germany, to perform Fanny Mendelssohn's works at the Felix Mendelssonhaus May 2. Thompson Phillips said the unknown aspect of the music drew her to Mendelssohn's works. Her music remained unknown until the late 20th century because in her time, it was not appropriate for women to be composing or publishing music. "What I really loved about it was I never heard it," she explained. "As a classical pianist, how often do you run into a totally new composer genius with a whole wealth of music that you know nothing about? So I loved discovering it all." And, the music is much different from that of her younger brother Felix. "The textures are much thicker and she is not afraid of dissonance," Thompson Phillips said. "You think of a chord of 1-3-5-7. Well she will add 1-3-5-7-9-11 and you start getting these dissonances. But I personally do not hear them anymore because I am hearing the overview of her music." Historians were able to go into archives and discover all she left behind," she noted. "And until that time, we knew she was talented but we didn't know what that talent was because most of her music had never been published, performed or seen. "In 1989 and the early '90s, her pieces started coming out one by one and getting published." Thompson Phillips said that while the music is new, it is not modern. She noted it has that thick moving harmony of Bach with an added romantic flavor. "It sounds to me to be very Bachian," she said. "Her mother had an aunt who was a famous harpsichordist who studied with the son of Bach. So Fanny was very well-versed in Bach." And she said, it is very technical. "It is very difficult to play," Thompson Phillips said of the music. "To me, it is the most difficult music to play. It is also very difficult to memorize because it is so thick and often times each hand is doing the part of two hands." During her recital, she will be joined for three numbers by a German pianist to perform three four-handed compositions by Fanny Mendelssohn. "I am playing those three pieces with Eva Sperl and I can't wait to see what that is going to be like," Thompson Phillips said. "I have learned both parts. I now know who is doing what and I know which is my part. I can't wait to see how it all is going to work together." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams