Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s “Singing” Cello on Decca

courtesy of Crossover Media

Some readers may recall that, a month ago on this date, there was a bit of a to-do over the visit to Davies Symphony Hall by cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. He had appeared as concerto soloist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla; and the concerto selection was Edward Elgar’s Opus 85 in E minor. This was followed by Kanneh-Mason performing an encore that left several of us scratching our heads. Rather than offering a solo, he recruited the four performers on the first two stands in the cello section to join him in a five-voice arrangement of a Bach song. (Note that this was neither a chorale nor an aria. It was one of 33 contributions to the Musicalisches Gesang-Buch [song book] compiled by Georg Christian Schemelli in 1736!)

Bach, of course, wrote more vocal music than most of us can enumerate. I approached one of the orchestra cellists to try to find more specific information, but he could only show me a single sheet of paper with music notation and no text! Had I taken the time to listen to Kanneh-Mason’s latest album, Song, which had been released in late September, I would not have been as mystified. Fortunately, the selection was identified through a local flurry of electronic mail exchanges, which allowed me to update my article with the necessary specifics.

This morning I followed up on my promise to myself to listen to the Song album in its entirety. The album consists of 21 tracks, only three of which involve “classical” offerings performed as they were written, rather than in any arrangement. The more familiar of these is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 66 set of twelve variations on “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen,” the aria that Papageno sings (providing his own accompaniment) during the second act of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 620 opera The Magic Flute. The second is Felix Mendelssohn’s Op. Posth. 109, a “Song without words” composed for cello and piano. For both of these selections, Kanneh-Mason was accompanied at the piano by his sister Isata. Finally, there is the “Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus” (praise to the eternity of Jesus) movement from Olivier Messiaen’s “Quatuor pour la fin du temps” (quartet for the end of time), scored for only cello and piano. For that track Kanneh-Mason is accompanied by James Baillieu.

There are also two much more recent selections which Kanneh-Mason performs “as written.” One of these is a set of five preludes for solo cello composed by Edmund Finnis; and, on the album, it is followed by “Same Boat,” which Kanneh-Mason composed in collaboration with Zak Abel, who performs a vocal line accompanied by the cello. The remainder of the album consists of an impressive diversity of arrangements, most of which are by Kanneh-Mason himself. These include another Bach selection (arranged this time for four cellos), the BWV 659 “Leipzig” chorale, originally composed for organ: “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” (savior of the nations, come). However, at the “other end of the time-line,” we encounter Burt Bacharach’s “I Say a Little Prayer,” given a solo cello arrangement.

Taken as a whole, this is a “something for everybody” album; and it is more than impressive to consider just how imaginative Kanneh-Mason was in programming this recording.