Fanny Mendelssohn received a lyrical piano piece as a birthday present from her brother Felix in 1828; he wrote it out in her music album, and she called it “Lied ohne Worte ” (Song without Words). Mendelssohn wrote such songs for piano, “true music, which fill a person’s soul with a thousand better things than words”, throughout his life. He himself saw six collections into print between 1832 and 1845. Two further collections containing pieces from the composer’s unpublished works were publishe...