Jeneba Kanneh-Mason: Too Much for One CD?

It has been a while since I wrote about one of the members of the Kanneh-Mason family, a clan that seems to have yielded an abundance of musical talent. My most recent encounter was this past September, when I wrote about Isata’s Mendelssohn album, which, like the Takács Quartet album I discussed yesterday, accounted for music by both Felix and Fanny. Where the future is concerned, cellist Sheku will be visiting Davies Symphony Hall at the beginning of June for the final offering in this season’s San Francisco Symphony Great Performers Series.

Cover of the album being discussed (from the Amazon.com Web page)

This coming Friday Sony Classical will release what I think will be the debut album of pianist Jeneba, given the title Fantasie. As is almost always the case, Amazon.com has already created the Web page for this album, which is currently processing pre-orders. This is, to say the least, a major undertaking, which reminds me of the old nothing-succeeds-like-excess jibe.

If this album were a book, I would describe it as being structured in four chapters:

1. Frédéric Chopin
2. Americana
3. Claude Debussy
4. Alexander Scriabin

Each of those individual composers is represented by two compositions. The entire album is framed by two multi-movement sonatas, beginning with Chopin’s Opus 35 (“Funeral March”) sonata in B-flat major and concluding with Scriabin’s Opus 19 in G-sharp minor, a two-movement work given the subtitle “Sonata-Fantaisie.” Both of those composers are also represented by two shorter works. The Chopin sonata is followed by the first two nocturnes in his Opus 27 set, and the Scriabin sonata is preceded by the first and eleventh preludes in his Opus 11 collection of preludes in all major and minor keys. The Debussy selections are also preludes, “La fille aux cheveux de lin” (the girl with the flaxen hair) from the first book and  “Bruyères” (Heather, named after a town Eastern France) from the second.

Bearing in mind that the Kanneh-Mason family is British, I have to confess that I was most interested in how Jeneba approached the three American composers in her program. She began with the first of Florence Price’s “Fantasie nègre” pieces, composed in 1929, revised in 1931, and based on the spiritual “Sinner, please don’t let this harvest pass.” The original version of this music was first performed by Margaret Bonds, who happens to be the second of those three Americans. “Troubled Water” is basically a fantasia on the African-American spiritual: “Wade in the Water.” The final composer is William Grant Still, represented by “Summerland,” which is the second piece in his Three Visions suite composed in 1935. (This is probably the best known of the three parts, since it was subsequently arranged for violin and orchestra.)

Taken as a whole, Jeneba has presented a decidedly generous offering. (Those that took the trouble to “do the math” will have discovered that this album offers 67.5 minutes of music!) That would make for a relatively impressive recital program, particularly if intermissions were scheduled on either side of the “Americana” segment. (Were I to produce that recital, those would be the intermission choices I would make; but, since I am just a listener, I am just as glad to have no say in the matter!)

Nevertheless, I think it would be fair to caution those acquiring this new release that it is not particularly conducive to beginning-to-end listening. (My guess is that those that try will begin to feel the onset of fatigue during the elaborate embellishments in the American selections.) On the other hand, each of the individual tracks is given an account that is thoroughly absorbing in its clarity. As a result, those with the appropriate gear are likely to have a richer (and, perhaps, better-informed) listening experience through MP3 technology, rather than a CD player!