“Music will perhaps be a profession for [Felix] while for you it will and always should only be an attractive ornament,” wrote Abraham Mendelssohn to his precociously gifted daughter in 1820. Initially acquiescent, and composing surreptitiously, Fanny latterly gained the creative self-confidence to publish works under her own name – though she allayed her brother’s possible misgivings by assuring him: “I am no femme libre”!

Following Felix’s example, Fanny composed part-songs for the convivial al fresco summer parties beloved of the 19th-century German bourgeoisie. While Biedermeier mellifluousness, jolly or gently soulful, rules, there are delightful numbers like “Unter des Laubdachs Hut” – a fleet, gossamer setting of Shakespeare’s “Under the greenwood tree” – and the melancholy “Schilflied”. Indeed, the best of Fanny’s part-songs stand up well alongside those of her brother, published in four sets as “songs in the open air”. Only the most fanatical Mendelssohn aficionado would make high claims for these shavings from his workbench. Yet the composer’s fastidious craftsmanship and feeling for choral spacing and texture steer the music well clear of sentimentality and (in the many 6/8 numbers) skipping triteness. A handful linger in the memory, above all, perhaps, the beguiling Goethe setting “Die Nachtigall”, with its welcome touches of contrapuntal imitation (a rarity in these part-songs), and the solemnly elegiac “Abschied vom Walde”.

The youthful-sounding Vocal Concert Dresden, topped by a notably pure soprano line, deliver well-nigh ideal performances: beautifully tuned and blended, gracefully phrased, with vivid yet unexaggerated dynamic contrasts and a nimble rhythmic sense in the rapid part-songs. Recording and presentation – which includes full texts and translations, and a well chosen selection of Mendelssohn family letters – are excellent. In sum a disc of undemanding pleasures, best taken a few songs at a time if you want to avoid overdosing on Gemütlichkeit.