Review: Sheku & Isata Kanneh-Mason, Marble Factory – ‘Masterful, captivating, simply gorgeous’

Sometimes you have to wonder — what on earth shape does a jam session take in the Kanneh-Mason household?

This is a glimpse, I suppose. Of those seven siblings with exceptional musical nous, we’re treated to masterful work from the two most prominent and acclaimed — Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason.

The pair are on a short tour with noisenights via Through the Noise — an organisation bringing crowdfunded “classical music gigs to some of the nation’s most iconic venues”.

So here we are at Marble Factory, descending into silence as they open with an opus — the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Sonata for Cello and Piano. Its captivating ebbs and flows set the tone for what’s to come, with Sheku facing the first of several broken hairs on his bow.

Marble Factory has hosted several of these noisenights concerts that bring diverse classical performances to unusual spaces round the country

Next, The Swan from Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals: an aching, awe-inspiring number, with Sheku’s playing at its lyrical, sonorous best.

He is as magisterial playing the slow and sensual as he is the lyrical and expressive, which we hear more of in Rachmaninoff’s The Muse. Isata’s opening on that track is simply gorgeous; I could listen to it over and over.

Where do you even start with Sheku Kanneh-Mason? His 2016 win for BBC Young Musician? The fact he’s the first-ever cellist to reach the UK Top 10? Perhaps his ever-presence on the BBC Proms bill, or an elite performance at a royal wedding?

Any which way you spin it, Sheku’s passion and prowess continue to make classical music more accessible to a new generation.

Tonight, his sheet music is seemingly a prop. He is entranced by the music, enclosed in it, playing most (if not all) by memory. His bow control and overall technique are immaculate, from bassy plucks to soaring high notes.

Isata is equally wonderful. Her clout as a soloist and chamber musician is growing, and justifiably so. She’s performed with orchestras from Philly to Stockholm, and in recitals from Berlin to Perth via South Korea. Some calling card, that. Immaculate posture too; I can’t help but feel that the woes of my lower back would wane with some time at a piano.

On that note, here are some other odd thoughts from across the set:

• Whose hands are more prone to cramping? Sheku’s note shifts are as dizzyingly quick as Isata’s digits wandering those 88 keys
• Of the 175-200 hairs in your humble cello bow, how many have to break before you take out another?
• How often can you hear a pin drop in Motion? So it goes — a terrific testament to the pair’s brilliance

Sheku and Isata have played together since they were kids, and the rapport is staggeringly apparent. The back half of the set comprises all four movements of the Sonata for Cello and Piano by Shostakovich.

The bulk of it is speedy and enigmatic, with Isata’s tinkling especially memorable in Part II (Allegro). A fabulous finale follows the third-act downturn. It’s a mesmerising, meandering Sonata that showcases both player’s total command of their craft.

As an encore, they play Sheku’s own arrangement of In the Bleak Midwinter — a fitting, iterative rendition for a super chilly evening.

Check out more from Bristol noisenights in 2025, and don’t hesitate to grab a ticket to see these two play if you get a chance!

All images: Sam Fletcher

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