"Editor's choice: It ranks among the most charming engaging debuts I can recall ... She brings weight and emotional heft to this uneven work the Concerto that are entirely convincing, and is well matched in the exuberant finale by Holly Mathieson and the RLPO ... But it is the performances of the two song transcriptions that show what a gifted musician Kanneh-Mason is ... So another bravo for Kanneh-Mason on her recording debut"

"With this debut recording ... Isata Kanneh-Mason proves that ... she is a pianist who makes lines sing beautifully and virtuosic passages dance, finding intimacy and eloquence at telling moments. That's a strong combination for the music of Clara Schumann ... For anyone wanting to explore her still undervalued works in her bicentenary year, this is a rewarding place to start ... Kanneh-Mason matches what we know of Clara's own approach, which was to forget ego and put everything at the service of the music"

"The concerto ... is a muscular work ... and with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Holly Mathieson, it makes a bold start to Isata Kanneh-Mason's disc devoted to Clara Schumann's music as a bicentenary tribute. Alongside the concerto she includes a selection of the solo piano pieces ... Kanneh-Mason's boldly assertive playing makes an excellent case for all of this music, in which the influence of Robert Schumann seems much less significant in the piano writing than that of Chopin particularly. But she does include Clara's touching piano transcriptions of two of her husband's greatest songs, Mondnacht from the Op 39 Liederkreis, and Widmung from Myrthen Op 25, eloquently unfussy arrangements which never obscure their intrinsic beauty"

"Recording of the week: Kanneh-Mason captures it all beautifully, and with real sympathy and affection: phrases that could sound slightly four-square in lesser hands are coaxed into bloom with subtle rubato, and in that helter-skelter finale she exudes all the joyful exuberance of a teenage girl set to take on the world"

"The pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason identifies strongly with Clara Schumann, not only through her music but also through her large family. Clara had eight children. Isata has six siblings, all musical, including the cellist of the moment, her brother Sheku ... Kanneh-Mason brings real verve and excitement to both opening allegro and the romping finale of the Concerto ... Her innate sense of shape and line are apparent again in the Piano Sonata in G minor ... Kanneh-Mason invests its singing opening with an almost reverential delicacy, interrupted with restless bursts of youthful energy"