Franz Bendel - Mondscheinfahrt nach der Liebesinsel (from "Am Genfer See", )

The title translates to “riding to the love-island at moonlight“ or similar. A little romantic poem starts the piece. It is to be played “Durchweg traumhaft und leise bewegt“, which is “dreamily throughout and silently moving“. Bendel (1833-1874) was a German Bohemian pianist and composer. He was a student of Franz Liszt for five years in Weimar. From 1862, he lived in Berlin and taught at Theodor Kullak’s Music Academy, Neue Akademie der Tonkunst. He was also the author of over four hundred compositions, many of them for the piano, including one piano concerto. Bendel was a superb pianist who toured extensively until his death from typhoid fever in Boston while on an American tour. He was aged 41. In 1866, he also worked at Carl Tausig’s Schule des höheren Klavierspiels for some time. Bendel was most active as a composer. Of his compositions, including four masses, symphonies, a piano concerto, and a piano trio; the salon-style piano works and numerous so