Composer: Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Nico Muhly, Felix Mendelssohn, Vijay Iyer, Johannes Brahms
Performer: Mishka Rushdie Momen
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Somm
Release: 2019
Size: 1.02 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Clara Schumann:
Variations sur un thème de Robert Schumann, Op. 20
01. Theme. Ziemlich langsam
02. Var. 1
03. Var. 2
04. Var. 3
05. Var. 4
06. Var. 5. Poco animato
07. Var. 6
08. Var. 7
Robert Schumann:
Impromptus on a Theme by Clara Schumann, Op. 5
09. Theme. Ziemlich langsam
10. No. 1
11. No. 2, Lebhafter
12. No. 3, Sehr präcis
13. No. 4, Ziemlich langsam
14. No. 5, Lebhaft
15. No. 6, Schnell
16. No. 7, Tempo des Themas
17. No. 8, Mit großer Kraft
18. No. 9
19. No. 10, Lebhaft
Nico Muhly:
20. Small Variations
Felix Mendelssohn:
Variations sérieuses in D minor Op. 54
21. Theme. Andante sostenuto
22. Var. 1
23. Var. 2, Un poco più animato
24. Var. 3, Più animato
25. Var. 4
26. Var. 5, Agitato
27. Var. 6, A tempo
28. Var. 7
29. Var. 8, Allegro vivace
30. Var. 9
31. Var. 10, Moderato
32. Var. 11
33. Var. 12, Tempo del tema
34. Var. 13
35. Var. 14, Adagio
36. Var. 15, Poco a poco più agitato
37. Var. 16, Allegro vivace
38. Var. 17, Presto
Vijay Iyer:
Hallucination Party (After R. Schumann’s Op. 99)
39. I. Moderato
40. II. Serene but Firm, with a Steady Pulse and Flowing 16ths
41. III. Clean, Nonchalant
Johannes Brahms:
Variations on a theme by Schumann in F sharp minor, Op. 9
42. Theme. Ziemlich langsam
43. Var. 1
44. Var. 2, Poco più animato
45. Var. 3, Tempo di tema
46. Var. 4, Poco più moto
47. Var. 5, Allegro capriccioso
48. Var. 6, Allegro
49. Var. 7, Andante
50. Var. 8, Andante
51. Var. 9, Schnell
52. Var. 10, Poco Adagio
53. Var. 11, Un poco più animato
54. Var. 12, Allegretto, poco scherzando
55. Var. 13, Non troppo Presto
56. Var. 14, Andante
57. Var. 15, Poco Adagio
58. Var. 16
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 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.