Das Jahr 2020 is the first published recording of Molly McCann, my older sister of two-and-a-half years. After encouraging my sister to record her piano playing for years, she embarked on her first recording project with Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Das Jahr (“The Year”, 1841), a groundbreaking cycle of twelve thematically and harmonically interlocked character pieces depicting the twelve months of the year. Putting aside her usual toil for perfection, Molly embraced a larger conceptual experience, both personal and musical in nature: to learn and perform each piece of the cycle in the corresponding calendar month, knowing the accelerated timeline would push her outside of her comfort zone and require a renewed approach to and understanding of time. With a creaky, slightly out-of-tune upright piano and her cellphone’s built-in microphone, the monthly self-recordings began in January of 2020.
Sean McCann
Sean McCann
