Jeneba Kanneh-Mason: Songs Without Words (digital EP)

Felix Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte V, op. 62: I. Andante espressivo; Florence Price: Song Without Words in A Major; Song Without Words in G Major (‘Pleading’; Margaret Bonds: Spiritual Suite: II. The Bells
Camille Saint-Saëns: Theme from Samson and Delilah (arr. Nina Simone)

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason piano
Sony G010006024824J

Short it may be, but this five-track release says a great deal about Jeneba Kanneh-Mason as an interpreter. Her command of tone and dynamics is marvellous throughout, and the effect is quite entrancing.

The idea is a neat one: to follow the wordless song from its Romantic origins into the twentieth century. It begins, sensibly, at the source, with Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words in G major, Op. 62 No. 1. He and his sister Fanny pioneered the form, and Felix went on to fill eight books with it.

From there Kanneh-Mason returns to two composers she championed on her debut album, Fantasie. Florence Price is represented by a pair of seldom-heard pieces: the G major ‘Pleading’ of around 1928, beautifully played, and the A major of 1932, whose closing pages are wonderful. Margaret Bonds’ The Bells, from her Spiritual Suite for Piano, takes Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells as its starting point and spins something far richer from it. Kanneh-Mason plays it with great sensitivity, letting the spiritual message speak while the pealing figures ring out expressively.

The last track is perhaps the most intriguing: the theme from Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah, in the solo arrangement Nina Simone played at her Carnegie Hall debut in 1963. It simply whisks you away, the dynamics judged to perfection.

Across all five, her phrasing is gorgeous, her delicate touch consistently excellent, and she moves between idioms with delightful ease. My only complaint? It ends just as you are settling in.