Breaking: Mirga makes a double record debut
mainAll year, record labels have been trying to sign a deal with Birmingham’s explosive music director Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla – and this is not it.
The conductor has decided to make her first record together with the young cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, showcasing his extraordinary promise. As for the labels, they can wait a bit longer before she signs on the dotted line.
UPDATE: We’ve been reminded that Mirga recorded a Weinberg chamber symphony last year on a Gidon Kremer ECM release.
Details of the double record debut below:
Teenage cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, is teaming up with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) and Music Director Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla for his debut album ‘Inspiration’ – to be released on Decca Classics on 26th January 2018.
Recorded in Birmingham and Sheku’s hometown of Nottingham during two CBSO concerts conducted by Gražinytė-Tyla, the album features Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.1 – the piece which propelled Sheku to fame as the first black winner of BBC Young Musician in the competition’s 38-year history.
Sheku’s debut album ‘Inspiration’ is a deeply personal collection of pieces which have inspired him in his career so far. From his school music teacher who first encouraged him to play ‘Evening of Roses’ to the great cellists – Mstislav Rostropovich, Pablo Casals and Jacqueline du Pré – who inspired him to play ‘Tears for Jacqueline’ and ‘Song of the Birds’, while Sheku’s passion for Bob Marley gave him the enthusiasm to write his very own arrangement of ‘No Woman, No Cry’. Sheku’s friends and fellow musicians are also a source of inspiration for the album, including BBC Young Musician winner Guy Johnston, who joins him for ‘Sardana’.
Inspiration – Tracklisting:
- Evening of Roses (Erev Shel Shoshanim)
Yosef Hadar, trans. Sheku Kanneh-Mason, arr. Tom Hodge
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Cello), CBSO Cellos
- The Swan (Le Cygne)
C. Saint-Saëns, arr. Tom Hodge
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Cello), CBSO Cellos
- Song of the Birds (El cant dels ocells)
Trad, arr. Pablo Casals
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Cello), CBSO Cellos
- Nocturne – The Gadfly, Suite op. 97a
Dmitri Shostakovich, arr. Levon Atovmyan
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Cello), Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (Conductor), CBSO
Dmitri Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 in Eb Major, Opus 107
- I. Allegretto
- II. Moderato
- III. Cadenza – Attacca
- IV. Allegro con moto
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Cello), Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (Conductor), CBSO
- Jacqueline’s Tears (Les Larmes de Jacqueline), Op. 76, no. 2
Jacques Offenbach, arr. Thomas Mifune Werner
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Cello), Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (Conductor), CBSO
- Sardana
Pablo Casals
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Cello), Guy Johnston (Cello), CBSO Cellos
- No Woman, No Cry
Bob Marley, arr. Sheku Kanneh-Mason
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Cello)
- Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen, arr. Tom Hodge
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Cello), Didier Osindero (Violin), Alinka Rowe (Viola), Yong Jun Lee (Cello)
This CD should be worth buying. I was at the concert in Birmingham the other night when he played the Shostakovitch cello concerto and the Nocturne – both brilliant. And (in spite of some of my previous comments about Mirga) I have to say that she was also excellent and conducted energetically when required but also with restraint when required. So maybe she’s calming down a bit.
It’s nice to know Decca don’t care enough to put her name on the cover.
And Slipped Disc doesn’t care enough to put Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s in the headline.
Yes agree. This recording is about Sheku. Not the over-rated Mirga!
Interested by your assessment that she’s “overrated”. Which of her concerts were you at, and can you say what precisely underwhelmed you about them?
Beethoven 5,Proms,a travesty.Tchaik 4,HR Frankfurt,directionless,without structure.Mahler 1,a mess….A joke,over hyped,….Karina Cannelakis is way better.
I was at the concert on Wednesday and thought it was absolutely wonderful. Sheku played brilliantly and Mirga conducted equally brilliantly. The CBSO played sensationally for her even by their high standards – she’s certainly not ‘overrated’.
Could the relentless hype over Mirga in this blog be taking a toll?
Tears for Jacqueline? Larmes pour Jacqueline? This got me wondering where the text had been copied from (I assumed it was a press release by the record label), but the only place it seems to appear is on this page.
This album is Sheku’s debut and it will be a big hit in classical music because he is talented, engaging, fresh and he has caught the public imagination.
This site has a habit of headlining Mirga when she is not the main story. It is as if she is being set up and it is not surprising that some then feel she is being hyped up.
I attended the Birmingham concert and thought the Shostakovich Cello concerto and the Gadfly nocturne were excellent. Sheku brought personality and warmth into a thrilling performance.
Mirga’s talent continues to develop, she was inspired and fully engaged with the music and orchestra. I was impressed with her throughout the concert and she caught the mood in all the pieces which were quite varied. The CBSO played brilliantly on top form.
A recording guaranteed in any case to shek u up.
These were very special concerts, as the critics agree:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/12/cbso-grazinyte-tyla-sheku-kanneh-mason-shostakovich-review-lso-alsop-bernstein-lpo-renes-bruckner?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/concert-review-city-of-birmingham-symphony-orchestra-mirga-grazinyte-tyla-at-symphony-hall-birmingham-rwk07rx07