Decca: Isata Kanneh-Mason — Summertime (Audio CD)

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Product Details:

• UPC: 028948516636
• Catalog Number: 485 1663
• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: Decca (Decca Classics)
• Artist: Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
• Composers: Gershwin, Barber, Amy Beach, Copland, Coleridge-Taylor (arr. incl. Earl Wild, Grainger)
• Release Year: 2021
• Genre: Classical
• Style: Solo piano, 20th-century American & British repertoire

Product Features

• Format: CD
• Discs: 1
• Total runtime: 62:52
• Sound: Stereo
• Booklet enclosed (multilingual brochure)
• Made in the EU
• Label code: LC 00171
• Condition: New / Factory sealed

Overview

Isata Kanneh-Mason's Summertime is a solo piano recital built around an American and British 20th-century thread, opening with Earl Wild's dazzling virtuoso transcription of Gershwin's "Summertime" and "I Got Rhythm." From there it ranges wide — Barber's brooding Piano Sonata, the rarely heard lyricism of Amy Beach, Copland's playful "The Cat and the Mouse," and a closing set from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

The programme is a statement as much as a recital. Kanneh-Mason deliberately spotlights composers who sit outside the standard recital canon — Beach and Coleridge-Taylor especially — alongside the familiar Gershwin showpieces, and her playing moves easily between the jazz-inflected sparkle and the deeper introspection of Barber's sonata.

Released on Decca in 2021, this is her second solo album, recorded with the clean, immediate sound the label is known for. It rewards both casual listening and close attention — the kind of recital you can put on for the room or sit down with for the detail.

Interesting Facts

• Isata Kanneh-Mason is the eldest of the seven musician siblings of the Kanneh-Mason family; her brother Sheku won BBC Young Musician in 2016.
• She was the inaugural Leverhulme Arts Scholar at the Royal Academy of Music and an Elton John–mentored artist early in her career.
• The opening Gershwin pieces are heard in Earl Wild's famously demanding concert transcriptions, not the original song versions.
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, born in London in 1875, was one of the most celebrated composers of African descent in the Edwardian era; his "Deep River" closes part of this programme.
• Amy Beach was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music; "By the Still Waters" is among her late solo piano works.

Track Listing

1. Gershwin/Wild — Summertime — 3:29
2. Gershwin/Wild — I Got Rhythm — 2:13
3. Barber — Nocturne (Homage to John Field) Op. 33 — 3:27 4–7. Barber — Piano Sonata in E-flat minor Op. 26 — 19:08
4. Gershwin — The Man I Love (arr. Grainger) — 3:?? 9–11. Gershwin — Three Preludes
5. Amy Beach — By the Still Waters Op. 114 — 3:07
6. Copland — The Cat and the Mouse — 4:10
7. Coleridge-Taylor — Impromptu No. 2 in B minor — 4:36
8. Coleridge-Taylor — Deep River — 6:17
9. Coleridge-Taylor — The Bamboula — 2:26
10. Coleridge-Taylor — Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child — 4:01

Publishers

℗ & © 2021 Universal Music Operations Limited. A Decca Classics release. Decca is a registered trademark of Decca Music Group Limited, a Universal Music company. Made in the EU.

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