Smithsonian Associates: Great Composer-Pianists: Mendelssohn, Liszt, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff, Lecture 1 – Felix Mendelssohn

Popular speaker and concert pianist Rachel Franklin provides a unique look at the monumental keyboard talents of four great composer-pianists and how their performing virtuosity influenced the piano works audiences enjoy today.

With a legacy of printed compositions but almost no recordings, how can we get closer to the white-hot moments of creation and performance when these artists poured out their genius for fortunate and astonished listeners? How did the composers’ musical imaginations and their signature performance styles influence the development of how pianos would be constructed and sound? And did their contemporary audiences even comprehend what they were hearing?

Franklin offers a fascinating exploration into the creative minds—and hands—of a quartet of piano pioneers celebrated for their prowess as composers and performers. She concludes each lecture by performing a work by the spotlighted composer.

British-born Franklin has been a featured speaker for organizations including the Library of Congress and NPR, exploring intersections among classical and jazz music, film scores, and the fine arts.​

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A true child prodigy as both pianist and composer, Mendelssohn brought a beautiful new freshness, luster and Romantic warmth to the piano repertoire. Throughout his painfully short life, he worked tirelessly as a groundbreaking conductor and entrepreneur, but his relentless professional life didn’t prevent him from composing a wide foundational canon of piano work that has been beloved by players ever since.