Status: 08/21/2021 10:33 a.m.
The British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason received the young talent award of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival on Friday in Lübeck. Together with the SHMF Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach, she played Clara Schumann’s 1st Piano Concerto.
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“The criterion of who receives the Bernstein Prize is actually in Bernstein’s name,” says conductor Christoph Eschenbach on the sidelines of the rehearsal before the award ceremony. “We are looking for talents who have the same qualities as he had them: humanity, ability, knowledge, deep musicality and of course the technical prerequisites. And Isata has that wonderfully and plays it wonderfully. And her charisma – something that Bernstein does too was incredibly present – also plays a major role. “
Isata Kanneh-Mason’s game: fresh, direct and from the heart
What Isata Kanneh-Mason also has is a fresh, direct and individual interpretation of Clara Schumann’s music. Her debut album “Romance” is dedicated to this composer. She plays the works the way she feels the music in her heart – this is how the young pianist describes it, and this is especially true for Piano Concerto No. 1.
“I think it’s a wonderful piece, it doesn’t get played very often, and it’s the first track I’ve recorded for my album,” says Kanneh-Mason. “Since then I’ve come back to her music again and again because she’s a great composer. It’s not an ordinary job for a woman, and her music is just beautiful. I feel very connected to her.”
Christoph Eschenbach: “Clara Schumann concert immensely difficult”
Isata Kanneh-Mason rehearsing with the SHMF Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach prior to the presentation of the Leonard Bernstein Awards
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Eschenbach brought the pianist and this year’s festival orchestra together with his equally young talents from all over the world to great sound, and that with a demanding work. “The Clara Schumann Concerto is immensely difficult, technically riddled with difficulties, which she masters excellently,” says the maestro. “In the slow movement, accompanied by a solo cellist, she can show off all the musicality.”
The Bernstein Award is endowed with 10,000 euros, a support for the career path of the young talents, who are repeatedly invited to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Kanneh-Mason, the oldest of seven siblings making music, was able to study music as a scholarship holder of the Elton John Scholarship Fund. She knows how important such funding is: “I remember how excited I was and how honored I felt and how important it was to have this scholarship. And of course it was special, then with Elton John in Los Angeles. It was my first concert with non-classical music and I also played the viola. “
Standing ovations for the pianist
But the piano is her favorite instrument. At the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival she was able to prove her exceptional talent: with the piano concerto and also with Gershwin’s Prelude No. 1, the encore that the audience demanded with a standing ovation.
NDR Kultur recorded the concert with the award winner Isata Kanneh-Mason. You will hear it on Sunday, November 15th, at 11 a.m. in the program Das Sonntagskonzert.
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