Summertime

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[In the Coleridge-Taylor Impromptu] Kanneh-Mason’s controlled phrasing and shimmering tone is exquisite. — BBC Music Magazine, September 2021, 3 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

Release Date: 9th Jul 2021
Catalogue No: 4851663
Label: Decca
Length: 62 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

Critics' Choice 2021
Gramophone Magazine

August 2021

Editor's Choice
Presto Editor's Choice

July 2021

Wild: Summertime (from Grand Fantasy on Porgy & Bess)

Work length3:29

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

Wild: I Got Rhythm (Gershwin) - from Seven Virtuoso Etudes

Work length2:12

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

Barber: Nocturne, Op. 33

Work length3:26

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

Barber: Piano Sonata, Op. 26

Work length19:13

$4.40

$6.00

$8.20

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

I. Allegro energico

Track length7:08

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

II. Allegro vivace e leggero

Track length2:06

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

III. Adagio mesto

Track length5:23

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

IV. Fuga. Allegro con spirito

Track length4:36

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Gershwin: The Man I Love

Work length3:16

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

Gershwin: Preludes (3)

Work length6:30

$3.30

$4.50

$6.15

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

1. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

Track length1:34

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

2. Andante con moto e poco rubato

Track length3:38

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

3. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

Track length1:18

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Beach, A: By the Still Waters, Op. 114

Work length3:07

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

Copland: Scherzo humoristique: Le chat et la souris (The Cat and the Mouse)

Work length4:09

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

Coleridge-Taylor: Impromptu No. 2 in B minor

Work length4:35

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

Coleridge-Taylor: Deep River

Work length6:16

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

Coleridge-Taylor: The Bamboula

Work length2:26

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

Coleridge-Taylor: Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

Work length4:01

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Recorded: 2021-03-01
Recording Venue: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

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Interview, Isata Kanneh-Mason on Summertime

8th July 2021

The pianist talks to Katherine about her new all-American album (released tomorrow on Decca Classics), which features music by Barber, Coleridge-Taylor, Beach, Gershwin and Copland.

Isata Kanneh-Mason said, “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.”

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.

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’, released as the first single today. 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, Dvorak with Bohemian music, and Grieg with Norwegian. Coleridge-Taylor came to England from Sierra Leone, mirroring Isata’s mother’s heritage.

Reviews

September 2021

[In the Coleridge-Taylor Impromptu] Kanneh-Mason’s controlled phrasing and shimmering tone is exquisite.

August 2021

‘Summertime’ indeed, from a profound and greatly gifted artist who radiates warmth, joy and much-needed musical sunshine.

July 2021

Kanneh-Mason’s survey of predominantly twentieth-century American piano music is a delight from start (a fantastically heat-hazy Summertime via Earl Wild) to finish (Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s arrangement of Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child, played with real tenderness and heart). Highlights along the way include a wonderfully atmospheric account of Amy Beach’s By the Still Waters and a characterful, delightfully impish depiction of Copland’s Cat and Mouse.

31st July 2021

This beguiling recital of music by (mainly) American composers…shows the young British pianist’s multifaceted musical personality. She brings muscularity and grandeur to the Barber, saving her quicksilver, jazzy flamboyance for the Gershwin. Percy Grainger’s arrangement of The Man I Love, from Gershwin’s own piano transcription, languid and sensuous, harmonies sinking lazily, is a gem.

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Summertime

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Interview, Isata Kanneh-Mason on Summertime

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