Interview, Mishka Rushdie Momen

Mishka Rushdie Momen's debut album for Hyperion, Reformation, was a recent Presto Recording of the Week, offering a sensitively shaped and colourful exploration of Tudor keyboard music, played on a modern Steinway concert grand.

I asked Mishka about her musical beginnings, her approach to programming, her thoughts on the instrument itself and a hopeful question about future plans.

Which came first for you, a love for music or a love for the piano?

I’m sure it was music. But because the piano captivated me from such an early age, I have scarcely any musical memories from before that time. I also played the violin for ten years and I adored it too. I like to think that in another life I could have been an organist.

You’ve chosen very interesting repertoire for your first Hyperion release. What drew you to playing Renaissance music on the modern concert piano?

The music was too enthralling to pass by. Once I began delving into the repertoire I just couldn’t stop, and from the outset it felt to me completely natural and uncomplicated to explore it on the modern piano. 

How much of a part did recordings played on period instruments have in developing your approach to this music?

I experimented quite a bit with playing these works myself on harpsichords, but ultimately I felt I had to find my own path into the sound-world and atmosphere I had in my mind, in a way which made sense for the piano. Physically, too, there are significant differences between the two instruments and certain approaches don’t translate well from one to the other. But there are many wonderfully vibrant and moving performances on harpsichords and organs which really inspire me.

How much of a consideration was your choice of piano, and did you work closely with the piano technician on regulation and voicing?

I had a very specific sound world in mind for this recording : a sonorous, “speaking” bass , a lucid and delicate treble range. My eventual choice of piano - a 9ft Steinway D concert grand - was prepared wonderfully by the master piano whisperer, Ulrich Gerhartz. This particular instrument in fact had been used that summer at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall - but somehow it was equally the perfect piano for this more intimate scale.

I can see from your upcoming concert programmes that you’ve chosen Byrd’s Prelude and Fantasia in A Minor to sit between two major works by Schubert. What drew you to this combination of repertoire?

The freedom of imagination and a certain fluidity in the way themes develop in the Byrd Fantasia seems to me to have much in common with Schubert’s sometimes surreal and dreamlike style and I feel this makes them perfect partners in recital programmes.

Do you feel the music featured on Reformation could sit successfully on its own in a recital, or is it best combined in this way with more widely known repertoire?

I spent a long time deliberating over the choice and order of pieces for Reformation. It was a wrench to have to leave out some treasured works! Ultimately, I decided to approach it as I would planning any recital. So there is, I believe, an internal narrative thread which leads one piece to the next and, I hope, a sense of completeness to the programme which adds up to more than the sum of its parts. And as a listener, I think programmes rooted in one period can be a great immersive experience. On the other hand, a recital can be a forum for dialogue between composers and between eras, sometimes revealing unexpected and inspiring connections which lead us to hear the music afresh.

Your debut recording on SOMM also took a themed approach, focused on ‘Variations’. Is finding a connective thread important to you in planning an album?

Very much so. Some listeners might hear several works in succession or even the whole album, so the connections of character, key, atmosphere, between each piece, and from start to finish, are vital to me. Others might pick and choose tracks ; so the pieces can be almost co-dependent while being entirely independent.

You list a wide repertoire, from the Renaissance music featured on Reformation, to commissioning new works by Héloïse Werner and Nico Muhly. What shapes your choices?

As pianists, we are incredibly fortunate to have a rich and vast repertoire of masterpieces from every age, and this luxury means I am able to let the music speak to me and to be guided by the composers and works which feel most vital and inspiring.

Chamber music features strongly in your repertoire, including works you have performed to great acclaim with Steven Isserlis. What lessons do you learn from collaborative music-making that inform your solo and concerto interpretations?

For me, the disciplines move hand-in-hand - I think one’s way of playing, of listening, of excavating a musical score, affects every form of making music, from concertos to Lieder. But I learn so much and gain great inspiration from wonderful chamber music partners ; exploring this repertoire is a great highlight of my musical life.

How aware are you of Glenn Gould's recordings of this repertoire and have they played any part in your approach?

These are the recordings I grew up with - I was thrilled when I learned that Orlando Gibbons had been Gould’s favourite composer. My approach is probably quite different to his, but I love his total emotional commitment to the works and the atmosphere he creates.

Are you able to tease us with a hint of what you would like to record next?

That is still highly classified…