Concert

Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason perform Bridge, Britten, and Rachmaninov

Verbier Festival 2021

Live
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Cast

Sheku Kanneh-Mason — Cellist

Isata Kanneh-Mason — Pianist

Program notes

The 2021 edition of the Verbier Festival welcomes two members of “Great Britain’s most musical family”: prodigies Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the BBC’s 2016 cellist of the year, and Isata Kanneh-Mason, a pianist laureate of the 2021 Leonard Bernstein Prize!

This concert, broadcast live from the Verbier Church, begins with Bridge’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor. Composed between 1913 and 1917, the score is divided into two movements: the first is filled with hope and wonder, while the second is a reflection of the composer’s despair in the face of a never ending war. The cellist continues solo with Britten’s superb “Tema Sacher”, a work dedicated to the great Mstislav Rostropovich and which makes a remarkable use of polyphony. The fantastic duo then moves on to two of Rachmaninov’s Fourteen Romances: No. 1 Muza (“the Muse”), inspired by a Puchkin poem, and No. 7 Ne mozhet byt′ ! (Impossible!), composed upon the death of actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya. Originally composed for voice, it has been arranged for a variety of instrumental combinations over the years. Then come three short pieces by Bridge and a final work by Britten, yet another written for Rostropovich, the Sonata for Cello and Piano in C Major.

Credits

Photo: Sheku Kanneh-Mason © Jake Turney

Sheku Kanneh-Mason appears courtesy of Decca Classics.

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