Fanny Mendelssohn was never lost ... them as a birthday tribute to her father. When she was 16, she helped her 12-year-old brother Felix shape and polish his first major piece, the Octet.

Mendelssohn is one of the 'Sunshine Composers' who, like Rossini and Saint-Saëns, wrote effortless, life-enhancing, optimistic music. 'Felix' is the Latin for 'happy ... This was not fanciful, for by ...

She was born into a musical family – her mother taught her to play the piano and her brother was the composer Felix Mendelssohn. Fanny was such a brilliant pianist that at the age of 13 she could play ...