Fanny Mendelssohn: Das Jahr, Nocturnes
Martina Frezzotti (piano) (Piano Classics)
(scroll down for English review)
因為重聽芬妮孟德爾遜的《降E大調弦樂四重奏》，對這張新出的鋼琴專輯感興趣，加上主要曲目是以一年12個月為主題的《一年》，比柴可夫斯基《季節》早了幾十年。不過芬妮這套作品寫得頗為連貫，沒柴可夫斯基那麼「季節分明」。不過比起孟德爾遜的無言歌，芬妮沒那麼遷就低水平用家，於是聽來是成熟一點，但仍有易聽的旋律。
我覺得芬妮孟德爾遜的作品，比起卡拉拉舒曼，可能更需要作系統式的介紹，亦即是說要編排得好一點，甚至混合不同類型，例如不要只是放一堆藝術歌曲，一堆鋼琴曲，或者把《降E大調弦樂四重奏》和孟德爾遜的弦樂四重奏放在一起。
I knew Fanny Mendelssohn wrote quite an amount of short piano pieces, but didn’t know that she wrote a cycle based on the months of the year. She wrote Das Jahr during an 1841 Italian trip. It’s quite obvious Fanny didn’t attempt to diversify the subjects as much as Tchaikovsky later did in his The Seasons cycle, but I’m convinced of Das Jahr’s continuity as a cycle.
I’m ambivalent of simply comparing these pieces with Felix’s Lieder ohne Worte because Fanny didn’t try as hard as Felix to please the low-end users. Still Fanny’s melodies are pleasing but the overall writing prevented them from being superficial. I do believe when championing Fanny’s compositions one should curate them better. It might be better to mix genres instead of lumping piano pieces onto an album.