Page 40 - FULL BOOK Isata Kanneh-Mason Childhood Tales

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CLASSICAL MUSIC
Childhood Tales
Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason explains
why she wanted to celebrate the magic of
childhood in her new album for Decca.
by Jo Litson

Isata Kanneh-Mason’s first memory of playing the piano
is as a five-year-old in the Caribbean.
“I was on holiday in Antigua and we were staying at my
grandparents’ house. They had a piano and I was trying to
play the theme tune to the Rugrats TV show. I remember
my auntie coming out and saying it sounded beautiful and
feeling really excited by that!” she tells Limelight.
Isata is the eldest of the famous Kanneh-Mason
siblings, all seven of whom are classical musicians.
They include cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who shot
to international fame when he played at the 2018 royal
wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Isata is increasingly in demand internationally and
has just released her third album, Childhood Tales, on
Decca Classics, accompanied by the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra, which also performed with her
when she recorded Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto for
her 2019 Decca album Romance.
Asked why she was inspired to record an album
around the magic of childhood, she says, “It was in
childhood where my love of classical music first
blossomed. I’ve always felt the emotion of nostalgia very
strongly and every time I hear a piece of music that
reminds me of childhood, I am taken back viscerally
and emotionally. I think the pieces that we fall in love
with in our childhood tend to live with us forever.”
She and her six siblings range in age from 27 to 13.
Given that they have all played instruments from a young
age, one wonders how they managed to practise when Isata Kanneh-Mason. Photo © David Venni
they were all living in the family home.
“We practised in all parts of the house, from
bathroom to kitchen to bedrooms; there was always
a cacophony of noise!” Orchestra. I knew nothing about the piece and was
Growing up in such a musical family played a big immediately delighted by it. I felt I had to play it one
role in her musical development, she says. “When day,” she says.
something is [part of] your environment, it becomes The album also includes Mozart’s Variations of the
very normal. Learning music requires a lot of discipline, French song Ah, vous dirai-je, maman, Debussy’s Children’s
and [knowing] that everyone around you is also going Corner, written for his six-year-old daughter, and
through that process makes you feel more supported Schumann’s Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood),
in the journey.” made up of 13 short pieces.
Her new album is centred around Ernő Dohnányi’s pieces that I played in my childhood and so I felt a
“The Mozart and parts of the Debussy are both
Variations on a Nursery Song, which takes the well-known
LIMELIGHT–ARTS.COM.AU it with 11 variations. It premiered in 1914 and poked fun at of the Mozart having the same theme as the Dohnányi,”
connection to them, and I particularly liked the symmetry
lullaby Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star as its theme and follows
various composers. Popular in the UK, it was performed at
says Kanneh-Mason.
the BBC Proms numerous times between 1923 and 1959,
“Schumann’s Kinderszenen is a piece that I came to love
later on in life, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful
and again in 1987 and 1993.
pieces of music about childhood.”
Kanneh-Mason first heard it when she was studying
Isata Kanneh-Mason’s album Childhood Tales is available
at London’s Royal Academy of Music. “A post-grad at
on Decca Classics from 26 May.
RAM was performing the piece with the Academy

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