Elena Bashkirova & friends play Mendelssohn and Hensel

For many years, the exceptional pianist Elena Bashkirova has felt a special bond with Felix Mendelssohn and his chamber music works, which she regularly performs at the most prestigious chamber music festivals worldwide.  Since October 2020, she also holds the office of President of the Felix Mendelssohn Foundation in Leipzig as successor to the conductor Kurt Masur.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting cancellation of the annual Mendelssohn Festival, Bashkirova, together with such great musicians as Juliane Banse, Emmanuel Pahud, Claudio Bohórquez, Karl-Heinz Steffens, and Ohad Ben-Ari, decided to present a chamber music program featuring outstanding and rarely performed works by the composer from his home to the world. In the Mendelssohn House in Leipzig, in the composer’s former apartment, a unique atmosphere for this extraordinary concert event was created in the authentic music salon with its surviving original floor. It was here that Mendelssohn himself performed with Richard Wagner, Joseph Joachim, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and numerous others.

Recorded at Mendelssohn Haus Leipzig
November 2020