Gershwin, Barber, Copland, Beach, Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Works and Arrangments
Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano) (Decca)
(scroll down for English review)
繼兩年前的克拉拉舒曼專輯，Isata Kanneh-Mason終於在Decca推出第二張個人專輯，也湊巧和Decca同月發行的古斯比小提琴專輯一樣，以美國音樂為主題。不同在這張沒有標明以黑人音樂為軸，況且Isata也不是美國人，是英國人。
我覺得這碟的選曲其實比古斯比那張有趣，但我卻喜歡古斯比那張多很多，原因就是在演奏者，Isata選了不少炫技作品，不過她的演奏只屬合格水平。蓋希文作品收錄了Earl Wild及Grainger寫的改編曲（軌一、二、八），以及蓋希文原作的《三首前奏曲》（軌九至11），前者Isata未能把層層疊的伴奏彈得分明，後者她在快的兩首不夠醒神俐落，慢的那首又沒有懶閒閒的味道。
巴伯《鋼琴奏鳴曲》（軌四至七）是不應被忽略的作品，Isata發掘出來本值一讚，但平凡的演奏卻不是幫了作品，第一及四樂章她都捉不到磅礡的氣勢，諧謔曲的第二樂章她把細聲當成輕盈，急速音符不夠分明，第三樂章（慢板）也像蓋希文一樣太過刻板。
軌12開始是更冷門的曲目，技術要求相對上較低，除了軌13柯普蘭青年作品《貓與鼠》，不過此曲實在太幼稚。其餘是Amy Beach及Coleridge-Taylor的作品，它們除了較先前的蓋希文、巴伯、柯普蘭早期，而且都有較強的歌唱性質，我覺得如果樂曲的伴奏沒那麼繁複，Isata會把旋律彈得較好，更能歌唱，所以我覺得這碟頭三分二的作品質素較佳，但演奏則以後三分一稍優。
Isata Kanneh-Mason finally had a second solo album after the anniversary issue of a Clara Schumann disc two years ago. And what a coincidence for Decca to put out a second American album this month, after Randall Goosby’s Roots album. But it must be noted that this album doesn’t have an African-American theme, and Isata is British, not American.
In terms of the repertoire I prefer this over “Roots” but Randall Goosby’s performance was more convincing. It was good for Isata to include many virtuosic pieces but she failed to deliver them with flair. In the Earl Wild Gershwin transcriptions (tracks 1, 2, 8) her distribution of the layers wasn’t enough, and in the Gershwin Preludes (tracks 9-11) her playing wasn’t clean enough in the outer movements and the slow movement was too uptight.
I applaud Isata’s inclusion of the unjustly neglected Barber Piano Sonata (tracks 4-7) but her mediocre rendering did it no justice. The outer movements were short of power and grandeur. In the second movement she confused the leggiero marking for simply a low volume, the third (slow) movement was dull just as she did in Gershwin.
Track 12 onward is slightly older and obscure repertoire, but I think Isata did a better job in the Amy Beach and Coleridge-Taylor pieces because they are of a more melodious, and less virtuosic nature.