Romance: The Piano Music of Clara Schumann
£12.83
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Label: Decca
Cat No: 4850020
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Release Date: 5th July 2019
Contents
Works
Piano Concerto in A minor, op.7Piano Sonata in G minor
Romances (3), op.22
Scherzo no.2 in C minor, op.14
Liederkreis, op.39
Artists
Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)Elena Urioste (violin)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor
Holly MathiesonWorks
Piano Concerto in A minor, op.7Piano Sonata in G minor
Romances (3), op.22
Scherzo no.2 in C minor, op.14
Liederkreis, op.39
Artists
Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)Elena Urioste (violin)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor
Holly MathiesonAbout
Big sister to superstar cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, 23-year-old Isata is a postgraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music, where four of the Kanneh-Mason siblings are currently studying! As an undergraduate, she held the prestigious Elton John Scholarship, performing with Sir Elton John in Los Angeles in 2013. Isata reached the final of the Piano Category in the 2014 BBC Young Musician competition, and has gone on to develop a substantial live career a solo artist, with concerto appearances, recitals and chamber concerts throughout the UK and internationally. When not performing in her own right, Isata makes up a third of The Kanneh-Mason Piano Trio with her brothers Sheku and Braimah.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Schumann (C): Piano Concerto In A Minor, Op. 7 - 1. Allegro Maestoso
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2Schumann (C): Piano Concerto In A Minor, Op. 7 - 2. Romance: Andante Non Troppo Con Grazia
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3Schumann (C): Piano Concerto In A Minor, Op. 7 - 3. Allegro Non Troppo
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4Schumann (C): 3 Romances, Op. 11 - 1. Andante
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5Schumann (C): 3 Romances, Op. 11 - 2. Andante, Allegro Passionato
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6Schumann (C): 3 Romances, Op. 11 - 3. Moderato
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7Schumann (C): Scherzo No. 2 In C Minor, Op. 14
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8Schumann (C): 3 Romances, Op. 22 - 1. Andante Molto
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9Schumann (C): 3 Romances, Op. 22 - 2. Allegretto
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10Schumann (C): 3 Romances, Op. 22 - 3. Leidenschaftlich Schnell
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11Schumann/Schumann (C): Myrthen, Op.25 - 1. Widmung
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12Schumann/Schumann (C): Liederkreis, Op. 39 - 5. Mondnacht (Arr. Schumann (C))
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13Schumann (C): Piano Sonata In G Minor - 1. Allegro
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14Schumann (C): Piano Sonata In G Minor - 2. Adagio
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15Schumann (C): Piano Sonata In G Minor - 3. Scherzo
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16Schumann (C): Piano Sonata In G Minor - 4. Rondo
Europadisc Review
And they do so through the hands of yet another remarkable young talent new to the recording studio. Isata Kanneh-Mason is, at 23 years old, the eldest of the seven Kanneh-Mason siblings: her cellist brother Sheku shot to fame with his 2018 debut album (following his win at the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2016) and as soloist at the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle. Yet there is no hint here of riding on her younger brother’s coat tails: this is a disc of extraordinary musical maturity and depth, and Isata taps easily into that seam of unassuming confidence that is the hallmark of a composer for whom she clearly feels a great affinity.
Proceedings open in high style with a performance of the A minor Piano Concerto, op.7, composed when Clara Wieck was still in her teens. The work started life with its third movement, by far the longest, which was originally conceived as a self-standing Concertstück. Here its polonaise-like mood fairly crackles, but Kanneh-Mason also finds an inner glow which she also brings to the first two movements, most memorably to the central Romance: when in its second half the piano is joined by a solo cello (RLPO principal Jonathan Aasgaard), the autumnal mellowness is enough to persuade you that Brahms might possibly have found a seed for his own Second Piano Concerto here. Throughout, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Holly Mathieson offer stylish support, but it is the apparent ease with which Kanneh-Mason tackles the concerto’s formidable difficulties, and the persuasiveness of her reading as a whole, that are the real wonders here.
The three solo Romances, op.11, dating from the year before Clara’s marriage (after a lengthy battle with her domineering father) to Robert, are reason alone to hear this disc. The central Andante – Allegro passionato was published separately by Robert in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, and here it receives a reading of radiant nobility, the main melody migrating from a beautifully rounded register to a crystalline right hand. The spirit of Chopin can be detected in this music, not least in the closing Moderato, and Kanneh-Mason reveals its expressive depths with exquisite shading, consistently intelligent phrasing and wonderfully deployed rubato.
The same strengths are on display in the C minor Scherzo, op.14, which marries fire with resilient poise in a manner not unlike Clara Schumann’s own character. There’s a whole world contained in the five-minute piece, and Isata Kanneh-Mason is the best of guides to its delights. For the op.22 Romances she teams up with erstwhile colleague, violinist Elena Urioste, in an absorbing reading that culminates in the dazzlingly Schumannesque filigree of the concluding Leidenschaftlich schnell (‘passionately fast’).
Clara arranged several of Schumann’s finest songs for solo piano, and two of the best-known feature here: ‘Widmung’ from Myrthen and ‘Mondnacht’ from the op.39 Liederkreis. It’s a tribute to both arranger and performer that the mood of the originals is captured so perfectly that one scarcely notices the absence of the voice. After these miniature jewels, the disc concludes with the G minor Piano Sonata, unpublished until the 1990s, but so full of character in this performance (not least the Mendelssohnian Scherzo and the urgent concluding Rondo) that it clearly deserves to be much better known.
Decca will do well to nurture Isata Kanneh-Mason’s talent over the coming years, for she is evidently a musician of deep intelligence and formidable technique. More Clara Schumann would be very welcome: the great Piano Trio perhaps, with more of the solo piano music. In the meantime, this disc is certainly the highlight of the 200th anniversary year so far, and a quite outstanding solo debut to boot.
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