On the subject of musical dynasties, the Bach household is hard to beat, though as we speak’s Kanneh-Mason clan is formidable. The Bachs included some 75 energetic musicians over a 200-year span, together with celebrity Johann Sebastian. The Kanneh-Mason family, from England, is simply getting began, however boasts seven siblings, every classically skilled, with a couple of having launched main careers, together with the eldest, Isata, who brings three of her favourite items to our trusty Tiny Desk upright piano.
In her early years, Kanneh-Mason, like many budding pianists, practiced the better works by Chopin. And, like visiting an outdated good friend, she retains returning to the so-called poet of the piano, however on this efficiency she performs the tough and rambunctious finale to Chopin’s Third Piano Sonata. With cascades of chords, rippling arpeggios and romantic sweep, simply attending to all the notes is a significant feat.
As a second course, Kanneh-Mason provides contrasting music by Franz Liszt, the ne plus extremely of Romantic period piano virtuosos, whose serene aspect will get the highlight within the Comfort No. 3 — wearing diaphanous curlicues and lacy ornamentation.
Kanneh-Mason closes with an association of “Generally I Really feel Like a Motherless Little one” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a Black British composer who died younger in 1912. Coleridge-Taylor holds a particular place within the coronary heart of Kanneh-Mason and her household as a result of his father hailed from Sierra Leone, the birthplace of Kanneh-Mason’s mom.
“Rising up, I by no means actually noticed any Black composers inside the classical music discipline,” Kanneh-Mason explains. Now, along with her profession rising, she’s extending their legacy.
SET LIST
- Frédéric Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor – IV. Finale
- Franz Liszt: Comfort No. 3 in D-flat main
- Conventional (arr. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor): “Generally I Really feel Like a Motherless Little one”
MUSICIANS
- Isata Kanneh-Mason: piano
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Tom Huizenga
- Director/Editor: Kara Body
- Audio Technical Director: Josephine Nyounai
- Host/Sequence Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Kara Body, Joshua Bryant, Wendy Li
- Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
- Manufacturing Assistant: Ashley Pointer
- Photographer: Estefania Mitre
- Tiny Desk Workforce: Maia Stern, Hazel Cills, Josh Newell
- Govt Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Sequence Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
