Isata Kanneh-Mason is a rising star of classical music and a part of a wild family story (they got on CBS Sunday Morning), in which she and all six of her siblings play seriously and really well. They’ve been on Britain’s Got Talent and on stage at Royal Albert Hall. At 24, Isata is the oldest. Brother Sheku (you may have seen him at that last royal wedding) is an acclaimed young cellist. The family is from Nottingham in the dead center of England, and while the parents are musically inclined, this full-on rush by the sensational seven deep into the world of European classical music is pretty extraordinary. The kids started in public school music programs and just went nuts. Love to see it.
I’ve been listening a lot this month to Isata’s chart-topping debut major label recording. The inspiration and program is from Clara Schumann, who generally tops the list of superb composers music history sidelined for ages for not being quite, you know, male enough. She was certainly known as husband of Robert Schumann, with whom she is said to have enjoyed one of the romantic era’s great romances. Yet let us celebrate Clara’s fame on her own terms for all the right reasons, even as we celebrate the rise of a brilliant young pianist and woman of color into the stratosphere of composed music.
Isata is one of several pianists to release all-Clara recordings in 2019, the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. But one magazine I saw said hers was the only one you need, and while I lack the vocabulary to compare and contrast classical recordings, there’s nothing but rapturous beauty and emotional control here. The album starts with a three-movement concerto, but I’ve sunk into the solo works that make up the majority of the recording. I hear one powerful young woman telling another woman’s story and raising her up as a heroine.
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