Reformation

by Mishka Rushdie Momen

Overview

Newcomer pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen touches on various topics in her notes for this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller lists in the summer of that year. She makes the interesting claim that the secular keyboard music on this album is allied in spirit to the English Reformation. However, she doesn't say much about the most immediately striking feature of the album, namely her use of a modern piano in music by William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, John Bull, and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, written originally for virginals or a harpsichord. This is not exactly common, but Glenn Gould used to play Gibbons on a piano (and even called him his favorite composer), and several contemporary pianists do so as well. Rushdie Momen's is one of the more ambitious attempts. Hers is not a heavily pianistic performance; the pedals are used, but only lightly, and the sonorities are well integrated into the texture. Rushdie Momen includes several monumental works, such as Bull's Walsingham, and mixes them with shorter pieces that have unusual takes on dance rhythms and pictorial images. Byrd's The Bells is not an especially common piece, and Rushdie Momen absolutely nails the big superstructure that Byrd erects over the simplest of grounds. Every interpretation is well considered, and there is never any feeling that one is hearing a Romantic vision of the English (and Dutch) Renaissance. A wonderful outing from a pianist whom listeners are likely to get to know better. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	06/28/2024
Label:	Hyperion
UPC:	0034571284453
Rank:	35345

Tracks

1. Callino Casturame BK35 FVB 158
2. Praeludium to the Fancie BK12 FVB100
3. Fantasia BK13 FVB52
4. Pavana Lachrymae BK54 FVB121
5. Will yow walke the woods so wylde BK85 FVB67
6. Mask 'Welcome home' MB20/42
7. Alman in G 'The King's Jewel' MB20/37
8. Whoop, do me no harm, good man MB20/31
9. Fantazia of foure parts MB20/12
10. My self FVB189 MB19/138
11. My grief FVB190 MB19/139
12. The bells BK38 FVB69
13. Walsingham FVB1 MB19/85
14. Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la a 4 voci FVB118
15. Pavan and Galliard 'Lord Salisbury'~Pavan MB20/18
16. Pavan and Galliard 'Lord Salisbury'~Galliard MB20/19
17. La Volta BK91 FVB155
18. Bull's goodnight MB19/143

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Mishka Rushdie Momen   Primary Artist,Piano

Technical Credits

Mishka Rushdie Momen   Liner Notes
John Elliot   Piano Technician
Gerard van der Gucht   Engraving
Annabel Connellan   Recording Producer,Producer
Paolo Caliari Veronese   Illustrations
John Bull   Composer
Simon Perry   Executive Producer,Producer
Todd Harris   Booklet Editor
John Dowland   Original Material
William Byrd   Composer
Ben Connellan   Engineer,Recording
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck   Composer
Orlando Gibbons   Composer
Benjamin Ealovega   Photography
Peter Willi   Photography