1-2-3 Mendelssohn: the Engegård Quartet and friends celebrate the music of Felix and Fanny at their festival in Oslo

The opening concert features chamber music and lieder, including Fanny’s masterpiece, Piano Trio in D minor and Felix’s String Quintet No. 1, plus a piano duet version of the famous Wedding March. Saturday begins with a cafe concert devoted to songs without words, then in the afternoon it is the music both wrote in childhood including a performance of one of Felix’s early string symphonies performed by young people and both quartets in Felix’s Octet. And youth has it in the evening as the boys choir is joined by young people from Barratt Due Junior Ensemble with works including Hear my prayer and the cantata Verleih uns frieden.

Sunday morning sees music by both siblings performed by young people and woven into a story about Felix and Fanny. There is an afternoon salon concert featuring chamber music and songs, then the Norwegian premiere of Sheila Hayman’s film Fanny: The Other Mendlessohn, and the festival closes with another feast of chamber music and song, including Ariel Lanyi in Felix’s Fantasie in F sharp minor and the event concludes with the audience being invited to join in Hark the Herald Angels Sing! which has music adapted from Mendelssohn’s Gutenberg Cantata.

Full details from the festival website.

And looking further ahead, if you fancy a December trip to Oslo, then the Engegård Quartet is collaborating with actress Gjertrud Jynge and visual artist Marianne Heske for A Shining Darkness at Norwegian Opera. This is a stage adaptation, by Gjertrud Jynge, of Jon Fosse’s novel Septology which will feature chamber music ranging from old to modern and from popular to sacred, and a video painting by visual artist Marianne Heske visually accompanies the performance.

Details from Norwegian Opera’s website.