Champs Hill Records is delighted that Malcolm Martineau will be curating a series of Mendelssohn vocal releases presenting songs by Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn alongside each other.

There is a need to show 'how unjustly neglected (Felix) Mendelssohn is as a song composer… He can provide sunshine like no-­one else in his Spring songs but he can also plumb the depths of emotion in his settings of Goethe and Eichendorff in songs like Die Liebende schreibt and Nachtlied. Many of his darker songs can stand proudly beside the greatest songs of Schumann.'

There is also a continued need to promote the music of his sister Fanny on its own merits, much more than just copies of Felix's style, born from her own relationships with poets including Heinrich Heine and Friederike Robert.

For this first release he has gathered together a wealth of imaginative young vocal talent in Sophie Bevan, Robin Tritschler, Jonathan McGovern, Mary Bevan, Allan Clayton and Benjamin Appl.

The disc aims to show the rich variety and distinctive voice of Mendelssohn in these songs. Malcolm Martineau and his singers explore five themes: Songs of journeys, departures and greetings from afar, Songs of Spring, The boy Mendelssohn, Antique strains and voices from yesteryear, and a set of duets.