Summertime Isata Kanneh-Mason

• Earl Wild (1915 - 2010):
• 1 Wild: Grand Fantasy on Porgy and Bess: Summertime (after G. Gershwin) 03:29
• 2 Wild: 7 Virtuoso Etudes: 1. I Got Rhythm (after G. Gershwin) 02:13
• Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981):
• 3 Barber: Nocturne, Op. 33 03:27
• Samuel Barber: Piano Sonata in E-Flat Minor, Op. 26:
• 4 Barber: Piano Sonata in E-Flat Minor, Op. 26: I. Allegro energico 07:08
• 5 Barber: Piano Sonata in E-Flat Minor, Op. 26: II. Allegro vivace e leggero 02:00
• 6 Barber: Piano Sonata in E-Flat Minor, Op. 26: III. Adagio mesto 05:23
• 7 Barber: Piano Sonata in E-Flat Minor, Op. 26: IV. Fuga. Allegro con spirito 04:37
• George Gershwin (1898 - 1937):
• 8 Gershwin: The Man I Love (Arr. Grainger for Piano) 03:17
• George Gershwin: 3 Preludes:
• 9 Gershwin: 3 Preludes: 1. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso 01:35
• 10 Gershwin: 3 Preludes: 2. Andante con moto e poco rubato 03:38
• 11 Gershwin: 3 Preludes: 3. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso 01:19
• Amy Marcy Beach (1867 - 1944):
• 12 Beach: By the Still Waters, Op. 114 03:07
• Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990):
• 13 Copland: The Cat and the Mouse 04:10
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912):
• 14 Coleridge-Taylor: Impromptu No. 2 in B Minor 04:36
• 15 Coleridge-Taylor: Deep River 06:17
• 16 Coleridge-Taylor: The Bamboula 02:26
• 17 Coleridge-Taylor: Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child 04:01
• Total Runtime 01:02:43

Info for Summertime

Summertime is the sparkling new album from vibrant young pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason. Isata brings her signature flair to this virtuosic and spiritual music for solo piano, following her 2019 award-winning debut album, Romance. It includes a world-premiere recording of a Samuel Coleridge-Taylor piece.

Summertime’s diverse programme is centred around Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata in E flat minor which was performed by Vladimir Horowitz, one of Isata Kanneh-Mason’s great musical influences, at its premiere in 1949.

“I am delighted to be presenting my second solo album Summertime, which features a rich array of pieces from many of my favourite American classical composers. The Barber ‘Piano Sonata’ forms the anchor around which the rest of the album was developed; I fell in love with the piece the first time I heard it, and it’s a real pleasure to have recorded it for Decca. I wanted this album to illustrate the diversity of music in America at that time, and so it was important to me to include the more familiar Gershwin songs, as well as the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor spirituals to which I feel a personal connection.” (Isata Kanneh-Mason)

The album includes a world-premiere recording of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Impromptu no.2 in B minor, released 110 years after it was originally published in London, and three of his transcriptions of American spirituals including ‘Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child’. Coleridge-Taylor was inspired by traditional African-American music and sought to integrate it into the classical tradition in the same way as Brahms did with Hungarian folk music, Dvořák with Bohemian music, and Grieg with Norwegian. Coleridge-Taylor came to England from Sierra Leone, mirroring Isata’s mother’s heritage.

Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano

Isata Kanneh-Mason
A postgraduate student at London’s Royal Academy of Music, Isata Kanneh-Mason has embarked on a successful and increasingly busy concert career as a solo artist, with concerto appearances, solo recitals and chamber concerts throughout the UK and abroad. Isata also continues to perform with her siblings, including regular duo recitals with her brother, the cellist, Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Highlights this season include appearances at the Lucerne Festival, the Zurich Tonhalle, Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Saint-Denis Festival in Paris, and an extensive US tour, including their debut recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Isata has also performed in the Portland Piano Series in Oregon, the Barbican Centre’s Sound Unbound Series, The Color of Music Festival in South Carolina, in Amsterdam, the Caribbean, the Cayman Islands, and Canada.

Isata reached her category final in the 2014 BBC Young Musician competition, winning the Walter Todds Bursary for the most promising musician before the Grand Final. She has since performed several times on television and radio, including BBC Radio 3 In Tune, the Radio 3 RPS Awards, BBC2 Proms Extra, Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, Al Jazeera TV, BBC World Service, Channel 4, The One Show, ITV Born To Shine, BBC2 Classroom Heroes, and a feature for CBS’s Sunday Morning.

A highlight of 2019 will be the release in the summer of Isata’s first recording for Decca Classics, an album of Clara Schumann’s piano music in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. At the centre of the album is the piano concerto, recorded with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Holly Mathieson.

Having been awarded the Gwendolyn Reiche scholarship for postgraduate study, Isata continues to learn with Carole Presland at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She previously completed her undergraduate degree at the Academy as an Elton John scholar, and performed with Sir Elton in 2013 in Los Angeles.

Isata is grateful to Nottingham Soroptimist Trust, Mr and Mrs John Bryden, Frank White, Awards for Young Musicians, and Sir Elton John.

This album contains no booklet.