A nine-year-old woman goes on stage to make her concerto debut in Mozart’s Rondo for piano and orchestra in D Main, Ok. 382 however as she steps onto the stage she journeys and sends issues flying. Moderately than crying and giving up, she smiled and carried on.
That little woman was pianist Alexandra Dariescu and now, 30 years, later, her newest disc (her tenth album), A Kid’s Dream on Signum Classics, celebrates this by opening with Mozart’s Rondo, written when he was simply 17, carried out with the Academy of St Martin within the Fields. The disc mixes items that Dariescu has performed all her performing life alongside new works and discoveries.
Final night time (3/2/2026) A Kid’s Dream was launched on the Romanian Cultural Institute in London with a brief recital from Dariescu preceded by a dialogue between her and Simon Webb, Head of Orchestras and Choirs on the BBC, and ending with celebratory drinks and cake!
Dariescu talked about being blessed not solely with a supportive household but additionally by being adopted by the UK. She defined that on the age of 17 she gained a contest which took her to review at a faculty in the course of Yorkshire. There the careers grasp inspired her to take an audition on the Royal Northern Faculty of Music. There consequence was a scholarship on the RNCM, and he or she adopted this by finding out on the Guildhall College, the place she returned extra not too long ago for his or her artistic entrepreneurship course.
She wished the disc to not solely mirror the items that she carried out throughout her childhood and all through her performing life, but additionally to mirror the variety of the society we dwell in, so the combination contains feminine composers, up to date composers and composers of color. There’s a new piece by the American composer James Lee III whom Dariescu met and bonded with while performing in Detroit and the consequence was a brand new concerto, Shades of Unbroken Desires, commissioned by the Detroit Symphony and the BBC Philharmonic. After this, Lee wrote her a brief piano solo, Humble Beginning which is on the disc.
Extra uncommon repertoire on the disc took place partly as a result of throughout Lockdown, with no live shows, Dariescu set herself the duty of discovering new and uncommon repertoire with the emphasis on uncared for ladies composers. Emmy Schäfer Klein is a composer about whom so little is understood. She revealed her Christmas Album in 1882 and Dariescu performs A Kid’s Dream from this on the album
The Mozart Rondo was recorded with the Academy of St Martin within the Fields, performing with no conductor which Dariescu described as requiring a unique kind of listening. After the efficiency and subsequent recording she grew to become good pals with the orchestra, had cake and all was nicely. Two different works on the disc contain members of the Academy of St Martin within the Fields. Cellist Richard Harwood joins Dariescu for Nadia Boulanger’s Three Items for Cello and Piano, while violinist Tomo Keller joins her for Clara Schumann’s late masterpiece, her Three Romances for Violin and Piano which had been written for Clara’s buddy violinist Joseph Joachim.
After saying that she hopes all the pieces she does will encourage the following era, and commenting that she hoped the album put a smile on our faces, she sat down and performed three items from the disc. Emmy Schäfer Klein’s charming A Kid’s Dream, James Lee III’s extremely atmospheric Humble Beginning (which nearly had Michael Tippett-like hints at occasions) and a Romanian people dance by Tudor Ciortea (1903–1982), a composer who studied with Nadia Boulanger and Paul Dukas. Vigorous and extremely rhythmic, the work was evidently Dariescu’s occasion piece as a toddler.
A Kid’s Dream is launched on 6 February 2026. Full particulars from Signum Information web site.
