Songs without Words
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, piano
Sony Classical 196874735053 (EP, download only).
MENDELSSOHN: Lied ohne Worte, Op. 62, No. 1. PRICE: Song without Words in A. BONDS: Spiritual Suite: II. The Bells. PRICE: Song without Words in G (“Pleading”). SAINT-SAËNS: Theme from Samson and Delilah (arr. Simone).
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason opens this mini-program of Songs without Words with one of the eponymous compositions by Mendelssohn, who could hardly have been excluded altogether. She’s chosen one of the less familiar ones, “May Breezes,” beginning, atypically, on an unstable seventh chord. Kanneh-Mason, walking the fine line between sweet and salonish, captures its plaintive lyricism well – although the pianissimo reprise is almost too coy – and winds it down seamlessly.
The rest of the program highlights Black women composers. Florence Price’s two Songs without Words reflect her directly appealing, somewhat retrograde lyricism. The A major piece, in fact, doesn’t sound all that different from Mendelssohn, though it’s more affirmative in mood; the soloist gives the single tones in the closing bars a bell-like ping. The G major, by contrast, is less square, more yearning, taking in a mysterious, exploratory central episode and a reflective final recap.
Margaret Bonds’s The Bells, opening with atmospheric textures, immediately sounds more substantial. It takes in rather a lot of pentatonic, “Oriental” writing, both melodic and harmonic, before opening into a fuller-toned maggiore dominated by more Romantic figurations. The rather grand chords at the close bring a perhaps unfortunate premonition of “Old Man River”!
Saint-Saëns was not a Black woman, but the arranger for this selection is the composer-singer Nina Simone, no less. I’d always thought of Ms. Simone as a jazz artist, but apparently her interests and her talents extend in multiple and diverse directions. The “theme” she arranges from Samson and Delilah is the “B” section of Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix – it’s hard to think of another such theme that “everybody knows.” It begins simply and straightforwardly – here Ms. Kanneh-Mason’s brief, fitful rubato suggests trying too hard – gradually building into a full-bodied fantasy, incorporating a measure of Lisztian bravura. Nicely done.
The pianist is apt to accent single notes too hard at peak moments – she almost bangs some of them – and they hit the mikes hard. Otherwise, the sonics are fine.
Stephen Francis Vasta
