Recorded on May 2, 2020.

Published in 1832 when Mendelssohn was only 23, this is the very first of Mendelssohn's "Lieder ohne Worte" (Songs without Words). The style is that of an arpeggiated harmony with a light, simple melody hanging over it.

Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 19, No. 1, F. Mendelssohn

In my adolescence, I played my mother's piano for hours on end, day after day. When I went off to school, however, the piano fell silent. The recordings I've gathered here are for my mother, that her son might once more, though three-thousand miles distant, fill her home with the sound of music.

Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 19, No. 1, F. Mendelssohn

Ari Cukierman