Isata Kanneh-Mason: Childhood Tales
Decca Classics

There's no denying the appeal of Isata Kanneh-Mason's third album Childhood Tales when the pianist's commanding technique is paired with selections that evoke the carefree joy and abandon of childhood. Four works are performed, three by her alone and the fourth, Dohnányi's Variations on a Nursery Tune, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Mozart's Twelve Variations on 'Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman' is a natural addition to the project, as are Debussy's Children's Corner and Robert Schumann's Kinderszenen. Given the abundant charms of such a programme, it would be hard to imagine any listener coming away from Childhood Tales without spirits lifted.

Elder sister to cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Isata has seen her star rise as rapidly. The siblings issued their first duo album Muse in 2021 to go along with her solo releases, 2019's Romance: The Piano Music of Clara Schumann and two years later Summertime featuring the music of Gershwin, Barber, Coleridge-Taylor, and others. At the age of twenty-seven, Isata is an in-demand soloist and chamber musician comfortable performing repertoire spanning centuries.

Mozart is sequenced first, but it's the twenty-five-minute Dohnányi work that is the album's locus of orientation. After a dramatic, sweeping intro, the mood brightens when the pianist joins the orchestra for a straightforward voicing of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” The scene set, we're off on a kaleidoscopic tour through eleven variations before closing with an exuberant finale. Kanneh-Mason dazzles with elegantly smooth arpeggios in the third variation; the lightness of The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's buoyant touch in the fourth adds to the work's enticement. Both shine in their beguiling rendering of the seventh's waltz rhythms and the eighth's mischievous march. As central as the piano is to the piece, Dohnányi doesn't shortchange the orchestra: terrific parts are written for the woodwinds and percussion sections, and the sparkle the orchestra adds to the arrangement makes a huge difference in the work's impact. While it was received enthusiastically when introduced in the 1910s, interest in Variations on a Nursery Tune eventually withered, the upside of which allows it to be heard afresh today, despite the familiarity of the tune.

In the three other pieces, the stage is entirely Kanneh-Mason's. Similar to Dohnányi's, Mozart's work powers through variations, twelve in this case, on the well-known French song “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman.” At eight-and-a-half minutes, the piece advances at a rapid clip, with many a variation a half-minute at a time. Again, the theme receives a voicing largely free of ornamentation; that arrives in abundant supply thereafter. Presented alone, Kanneh-Mason's deft and seemingly effortless execution of the variations can't help but impress. Some unfold with torrential force; others, like the eighth and adagio-styled eleventh, are slower and contemplative—even if the moment passes quickly.

A natural choice for a project so-themed, Debussy's six-part suite was written for his six-year-old daughter and never fails to enchant. “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” entrances when Kanneh-Mason's modulations in tempo and dynamics are effected with characteristic smoothness. The delicacy of touch in “Jimbo's Lullaby” and “Serenade for the Doll” speaks to the high level of refinement she's achieved in her playing. If there's a tad less zest in her Children's Corner (see “Cakewalk,” for example) compared to other versions, it's compensated for by the understatement and nuance she brings to the work. That said, there are moments where one longs for her to be less polite and allow some degree of wildness to be unleashed. Childhood Tales concludes with a laudable essaying of Schumann's Kinderszenen, thirteen concise pieces designed to distill the essence of youth into musical form. With its innocent tone and wistful melody, the first, “Von fremden Ländern und Menschen,” endears instantly; “Kuriose Geschichte,” “Glückes genug,” and “Ritter vom Steckenpferd” charm too, though in this case for their vivacity. As engaging as the spirited variations are, however, gentle evocations such as “Träumerei” and “Kind im Einschlummern” recommend the piece most.

June 2023