Page 51 - FULL BOOK Isata Kanneh-Mason Childhood Tales

The album grew around Dohnányi 's Variations on a Nursery Song as I heard it live in concert
and decided that it was something I really wanted to record. I loved its humour and the fact it’s
such a brazen composition and as an audience member, I found that incredibly exciting. And
then Mozart's Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, maman" joined, partly because I liked the
symmetry of it being based around the same theme and partly because I played it as a child. I
also played part of Debussy's Children's Corner Suite when I was young, and I fell in love with
the Kinderszenen as an adult. All the works express childhood in different ways and it does feel
like my most personal album to date because it links both my young and now adult musical lives.
Some of these pieces evoke nostalgia for me and hopefully they have featured in the lives of
many of the listeners as well.

The first piece of music I remember connecting with is Schubert's "Trout" Quintet. I loved it
because we watched a documentary of Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Daniel Barenboim,
Pinchas Zukerman and Jacqueline du Pré playing it. What struck me the most about this film
was the amount of fun the musicians were having while rehearsing the piece and backstage
before the concert. Watching this documentary really brought the music to life and was
inspirational to me as a seven-year-old.

The more I play any piece, the more freedom of expression I can bring to the performance. This
is especially true of the Dohnányi because it’s a piece that really thrives on spontaneity. With the
Mozart, I’m not sure how much my interpretation has changed over the years but as my
knowledge and technique have developed, I’m able to express more of the feelings I have about
the piece. During the recording process of this album, I particularly loved the Dohnányi because I
got to work with Domingo Hindoyan and the RLPO again. I think the biggest challenges on the
album were some of the more “simple’ movements in the Schumann and Debussy because there
are fewer notes and I felt I wanted to bring a huge amount of detail into what was there.

In terms of what I’d like people to take away from the album, I would hope that those who haven’t
heard the Dohnányi before can enjoy it as much as I do and that they revisit some pieces that
they may have loved for years. Who knows, perhaps it might even inspire some lapsed pianists
to sit down again and play?

The more I play any piece, the more freedom of expression I
can bring to the performance