Isata Kanneh-Mason – Romance – The Piano Music of Clara Schumann (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

The Kanneh-Mason family has a website covering all seven siblings, plus a piano trio, who are active musically. Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason has gotten the headlines with his appearance at the Prince Harry-Meghan Markle wedding, but now comes older sister Isata Kanneh-Mason, elegant indeed in an off-the-shoulder African dress. She deserves credit for choosing an off-the-beaten-path program for her debut: a recital of Clara Schumann’s piano music. These pieces are played more often than they used to be, but most of them, especially the concluding Piano Sonata in G minor that was not published until 1991, still qualify as novel. Kanneh-Mason takes the works chronologically, which has the virtue of showing Schumann’s compositional development but the disadvantage of leading with the weakest suit, the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7, which the composer wrote in her teens. It’s a precocious and at times clever work, but it is no match for Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, and the performance with Holly Mathieson leading the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is straightforward but no more. Things improve as Kanneh-Mason traverses two sets of Romances, a Scherzo, and two arrangements of music by Robert Schumann. The best is saved for last with the Piano Sonata in G minor. Clara Schumann modestly titled this work a Sonatine and gave it to her husband as a Christmas present. The latter should not disqualify it from consideration in the least, and the Sonatine title was given when the work had only two movements; Schumann returned to the work twice and ended up with a substantial four-movement work that is more sonata than sonatina. Sample its muscular Scherzo, which also shows Kanneh-Mason developing some lively power. She’s definitely a pianist to watch, and this is a worthwhile addition to the Clara Schumann discography.

Tracklist:
1. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 1. Allegro maestoso (06:11)
2. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 2. Romance: Andante non troppo con grazia (04:54)
3. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 3. Allegro non troppo (10:11)
4. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 1. Andante (03:02)
5. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 2. Andante – Allegro passionato (06:17)
6. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 3. Moderato (04:23)
7. Isata Kanneh-Mason – Clara Schumann: Scherzo No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 14 (04:52)
8. Elena Urioste – 1. Andante molto (03:07)
9. Elena Urioste – 2. Allegretto (02:45)
10. Elena Urioste – 3. Leidenschaftlich schnell (04:14)
11. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 1. Widmung (Arr. Clara Schumann) (02:14)
12. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 5. Mondnacht (Arr. Clara Schumann) (03:51)
13. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 1. Allegro (08:58)
14. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 2. Adagio (03:06)
15. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 3. Scherzo (02:52)
16. Isata Kanneh-Mason – 4. Rondo (05:14)