Celebrating 25 Years of Excellence

Variations

£6.00£14.00

Label: ,
Catalogue No: SOMMCD 0603
Release Date: 2019-09-27
Number of Discs: 1
EAN/UPC: 748871060326
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Composers: , , , , ,
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Liner Notes
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Making an impressive solo debut on SOMM this month is the young, fast-rising pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen. No stranger to SOMM, she joined two of today’s finest pianists – Valerie Tryon and Peter Donohoe – in Mozart’s dazzling Piano Concerto for Three Pianos, K242 (SOMMCD 268-2) in 2018.

Mishka studied with Joan Havill, Richard Goode and Imogen Cooper and was mentored by Sir András Schiff, who presented her in recitals throughout Europe and in New York for his acclaimed Building Bridges series.

This superbly realised recital includes Variations by Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms and Mendelssohn, and first recordings of two new works, specially commissioned by Mishka for this recording, by Nico Muhly and Vijay Iyer. A single theme from Robert Schumann’s Bunte Blätter is the prompt for completely different, sometimes opposing, sets of musical mutations, the result as exciting as it is intriguing.

A birthday gift for her husband, Clara Schumann’s Variations on a Theme of Robert Schumann are “an outpouring of generosity and love” that inspired Brahms’s Op.9 Variations (Op.9), which Rushdie Momen describes in her booklet notes as “one of his most intimate and personal expressions”.

The “burst of harmonic and rhythmic invention” that are Robert Schumann’s Op.5 Impromptus, and Mendelssohn’s “concise, rigorously constructed” Variations sérieuses were both modelled on Beethoven’s Eroica Variations.

Completing a recital brilliantly illustrating Rushdie Momen’s conviction that “the possibilities of the variation form seem infinite” are two world premiere recordings: Nico Muhly’s Small Variations – “a five-minute chorale with an explosion halfway through it” – and Vijay Iyer’s Hallucination Party, a “fever dream” packed with surprises.

A Guildhall School of Music and Drama graduate, Mishka Rushdie Momen is also a committed chamber musician who has partnered Steven Isserlis, Midori and members of the Endellion, Belcea and Artemis String Quartets.

On This Recording

    Clara Schumann: Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op.20 [11:46]
  1. Thema - Ziemlich langsam
  2. Variation I
  3. Variation II
  4. Variation III
  5. Variation IV
  6. Variation V - Poco animato
  7. Variation VI
  8. Variation VII
  9. Robert Schumann: Impromptus on a Theme by Clara Wieck, Op.5 (1850 version) [17:57]
  10. Ziemlich langsam - Thema
  11. Impromptu I
  12. Impromptu II - Lebhafter
  13. Impromptu III - Sehr präcis
  14. Impromptu IV - Ziemlich langsam
  15. Impromptu V - Lebhaft
  16. Impromptu VI - Schnell
  17. Impromptu VII - Tempo des Themas
  18. Impromptu VIII - Mit großer Kraft
  19. Impromptu IX
  20. Impromptu X - Lebhaft
  21. Nico Muhly: Small Variations* (2019) [4:28]
  22. Small Variations (2019)
  23. Felix Mendelssohn: Variations sérieuses, Op.54 [12:18]
  24. Andante sostenuto
  25. Variation 1
  26. Variation 2 - Un poco più animato
  27. Variation 3 - Più animato
  28. Variation 4
  29. Variation 5 - Agitato
  30. Variation 6 - a tempo
  31. Variation 7
  32. Variation 8 - Allegro vivace
  33. Variation 9 -
  34. Variation 10 - Moderato
  35. Variation 11
  36. Variation 12 - Tempo del Tema
  37. Variation 13
  38. Variation 14 - Adagio
  39. Variation 15 - poco a poco più agitato
  40. Variation 16 - Allegro vivace
  41. Variation 17 - Presto
  42. Vijay Iyer: Hallucination Party (from a Theme by R. Schumann)* (2019) [10:30]
  43. I - Moderato
  44. II - serene but firm, with a steady pulse and flowing 16ths
  45. II – clean, nonchalant
  46. Johannes Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op.9 [19:30]
  47. Thema - Ziemlich langsam
  48. Variation 1
  49. Variation 2 - Poco più animato
  50. Variation 2 - Tempo di tema
  51. Variation 4 - Poco più moto
  52. Variation 5 - Allegro capriccioso
  53. Variation 6 - Allegro
  54. Variation 7 - Andante
  55. Variation 8 - Andante (non troppo lento)
  56. Variation 9 - Schnell
  57. Variation 10 - Poco Adagio
  58. Variation 11 - Un poco più animato
  59. Variation 12 - Allegretto, poco scherzando - Presto
  60. Variation 13 - Non troppo Presto
  61. Variation 14 - Andante
  62. Variation 15 - Poco Adagio
  63. Variation 16

Reviews:

“Beautifully poetic piano playing from a young newcomer, featuring a fascinating collection of classics and new music.” —Peter Burwasser, Fanfare ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️