Childhood Tales

Debussy: Children’s Corner; Dohnányi: Variations on a Nursery Song*; Mozart: Variations on ‘Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman’ in C, K265; R Schumann: Kinderszenen

Isata Kaneh-mason (piano); *Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/ Domingo Hindoyan

Decca 485 4180 58:13 mins

Isata Kannehmason’s own prodigious childhood – along with that of her six siblings – is a source of great fascination, detailed by her mother in the 2020 family memoir House of Music. While life in suburban Nottingham was not without its challenges, all seem to have rubbed along quite nicely – Childhood Tales is a largely uplifting collection of pieces inspired by an idealistic view of early life. At its centre sits Ernő Dohnányi’s Variations on a Nursery Song, a concertante piece that uses ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ as its theme. Domingo Hindoyan, Kanneh-mason and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra bring out the humour of this evocative and charming piece, reminding us why the 1914 work was once so popular.

Pairing Dohnányi with Mozart’s variations on the same theme makes musical sense: Kannehmason plays beautifully even in the early variations, drawing out the well-known melody in Nos 3 and 4, having fun with the virtuosic Nos 6 and 7 and injecting contrast and drama into Nos 8 and 10. The dreamy, playful images conjured by Debussy’s Children’s Corner are balanced by Schumann’s introspective Kinderszenen. Kanneh-mason trots through ‘Ritter vom Steckenpferd’; tiptoes along ‘Träumerei’ and finds just enough pathos in ‘Fast zu ernst’. The slowly turning, brooding nostalgia leaves us yearning for uncomplicated innocence. Claire Jackson PERFORMANCE ★★★★

RECORDING ★★★★