‘[Mishka Rushdie Momen] seeks an underlying spirituality to the music. The playing is smoother, the touch lighter, the aim more to comfort the mind than arrest it … less dramatic but more even-tempered and sometimes even delightfully sentimental, Momen’s approach is different but no less satisfying. I admired [Kit] Armstrong’s freedom and flirtation with anachronism, but I find this album exerts a stronger emotional appeal. It makes a fine complement to the earlier one, even with a number of works overlapping. If this is to be core repertoire for contemporary pianists, then bring on the pleasure of comparing and contrasting multiple artists grappling with the same material’ (Gramophone)
‘Rushdie Momen’s choice of pieces is attractively varied. Her playing is gently inflected and she never tries to emulate the vastly different techniques of earlier instruments … what emerges from Momen’s recital is her affection for her chosen programme. The pieces by Byrd and Gibbons are especially rewarding’ (BBC Music Magazine)
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
‘Pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen is on a pilgrimage to restore a fuller picture of English Renaissance music after the 'cultural vandalism' of the English Reformation. Well-rounded musical portraits, rich pieces, beauty, charm, wit—and some delightful ornamentation’ (BBC Record Review)
‘Rushdie Momen is virtuosic in the dense variations of Bull’s Walsingham, introspective in Gibbons’s darkly beautiful Lord Salisbury Pavan, and always weaving the music through with fine-spun threads of trills and embellishments, lightly worn. It’s beautifully done’ (The Guardian)
‘This is splendid … Momen gets it that listeners want to hear a piano sing’ (American Record Guide)
‘Her first solo recital, and it’s a triumph’ (The Times)
‘Momen interprets this wonderful music with a natural ease never compromised by her myriad subtleties of dynamics, touch and tone’ (The Times)
‘Mishka Rushdie Momen’s versatility, sensitivity and erudition make assessment of this enchanting recording an elusive challenge. First, and most importantly, there is her unalloyed joy in her task; there is nothing drily academic about her artistry, whether musical or verbal. There is always a telling delight in knowledge as well as in confirmation of her early awareness that music would be her life … Momen’s playing brims with zest, clarity and refinement’ (International Piano)
‘Mishka Rushdie Momen [is] one of this country's most gifted and intellectually curious young concert pianists … [Reformation] is performed with thrilling exuberance and subtlety’ (The Spectator)
‘Rushdie Momen certainly harnesses the mellowness of the modern piano to bring out the beauty of each of the works … a thoughtful and illuminating effort, and perhaps a great gateway for those less familiar with this genre’ (The Classic Review)
‘Newcomer pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen touches on various topics in her notes for this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller lists … every interpretation is well considered, and there is never any feeling that one is hearing a Romantic vision of the English (and Dutch) Renaissance. A wonderful outing from a pianist whom listeners are likely to get to know better’ (AllMusic, USA)
‘On this outstanding album, pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen presents a wide-ranging program of pieces … those who just want to immerse themselves in the sound of Renaissance music rendered in the pearl-like tones of a modern piano are encouraged to simply throw themselves in. Momen is a marvelous interpreter, and she presents this music to us in a lovely, golden light’ (CD Hotlist, USA)
‘Rushdie Momen not only performs these pieces exquisitely, but also writes about them in an evocative way, referring to her role being 'to animate and recreate this music, not merely to describe or reproduce the text' … [noting] that much is known about the Elizabethans but 'often what is missing is people’s true, private feelings and inner worlds.' She has tapped into those feelings and worlds, sharing them in a deeply sensitive and open way through this music’ (WPR, USA)
‘I begin with a confession, that had I not been working at Presto I may have overlooked Mishka Rushdie Momen’s Hyperion debut, with so much music vying for my attention and a continuing stream of new recordings. It would have been my loss to miss this album of captivating music, musicianship and pianism … there is much to explore and enjoy here, in an album which rewards repeated listening and which leaves me in anticipation of what we hear next from this exciting new addition to Hyperion’s armoury of superb pianists’ (Presto Classical)
» More‘Gibbons’s
Alman in G, The King’s Jewel is infused with requisite nobility while the artist’s well-paced interpretation of Byrd’s
The Bells bursts into rapid-fire figuration pealing with joy in this early summer pleaser a welcome addition to the baroque keyboard music discography’ (Winnipeg Free Press, Canada)
» More„Allein schon für ihre Auswahl gebührt Mishka Rushdie Momen ein britischer Orden. Doch auch Momens „sprechendes“ Spiel erweist sich als treffsicher und ideal für die besonderen Wesenzüge dieser durchweg kunstvoll „gebauten“, aber dank ihrer Noblesse, Anmut und Innigkeit stets das Herz ansprechenden Stücke“ (Rondo, Germany)
» More
Reformation - Vinyl Edition