The Mendelssohn family cultivated a very special form of house music in their garden cottage on the family estate: the so-called Sonntagsmusiken (Sunday musicales). Perhaps this inspired Fanny Hensel to publish the six songs for mixed choir, collectively entitled Gartenlieder (Garden Songs), op. 3.

Hensel set texts by well-known German Romantic poets such as Eichendorff and Uhland as well as a poem by her husband Wilhelm Hensel. Each creating a wholly different mood, the songs feature rec...