Mishka Rushdie Momen
Good morning.
Today we’re listening to Mishka Rushdie Momen, a British pianist from London. She studied with Imogen Cooper and Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and began releasing music in the late 2010s. At home in 2020, Momen discovered the works of 16th-century composer William Byrd. She reflected in The Guardian, “It was surprisingly moving to be exploring masterpieces written in a time of even more deadly plagues and at a time when, like today, people would have been contemplating a profoundly insecure and unpredictable future.” On her new album, Reformation, she plays pieces by Byrd and his contemporaries Gibbons, Bull, and Sweelinck. Those composers wrote for harpsichord and organ – the piano was invented over a century later – and Momen’s piano interpretations reveal their resemblance to classical and even modern music. We’re also playing Momen’s 2019 album, Variations, on which she performs the 19th century equivalent of remixes by Robert and Clara Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Brahms.
Reformation - Mishka Rushdie Momen (80m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Variations - Mishka Rushdie Momen (80m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Have a great Wednesday.
Listening to Variations right now. Beautiful. Thanks for the heads up!
Confession; I tend to dislike early music played on piano - a ridiculous, pretentious hang-up that I cannot shake. Yet Momen (Rushdie Momen?) pours forth an excellent performance. The pianist creates harpsichord-like timbre while at the same time not pretending that she is playing one. She makes use of what the piano can do while still holding to the structure of music intended for an instrument lacking 'sustain' pedals.