Ex. 7-6: Bergeslust

No. 5 — the last — of Fanny Mendelssohn's 5 Lieder (Op. 10), set to a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff. It was one of her very last songs, written in the final days before her death in May 1847.

The song itself is bright and quick, full of fresh mountain air. The poem's closing lines speak of thoughts and songs rising up to the kingdom of heaven. Those words — together with a few bars of this music — are carved on Fanny's gravestone in Berlin.

On 14 May 1847, Fanny had a stroke while rehearsing her brother Felix Mendelssohn's choral work Die erste Walpurgisnacht, and died that day, at 41. This collection was published after her death, in 1850.

Felix was devastated. He poured his grief into a string quartet (No. 6) that became known as his "Requiem for Fanny," and he died just six months later, also of a stroke, at 38.

In her last months Fanny had also grown close to the pianist and composer Clara Schumann, who was staying in Berlin; Clara wrote in March 1847 that the two of them "almost always harmonize with each other." Other songs from Op. 10 are also in this app. (Ex. 9-4: Nach Süden by Fanny Mendelssohn, Ex. 11-4: Vorwurf by Fanny Mendelssohn, Ex. 6-5: Abendbild by Fanny Mendelssohn)

From the album Mendelssohn-Hensel: Lied Edition, Vol. 2 by Anne Grimm and Kelvin Grout (2012)
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