Album out now: Mishka Rushdie Momen "Hall of Mirrors"

Hyperion Records announces Hall of Mirrors, the new album from pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen, to be released on 11 September 2026. Inspired by the artistic world of Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV, the album brings together keyboard works by François Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, a pioneering composer whose music remains far less widely known than that of her male contemporaries. The album’s first single is the Sarabande from Jacquet de La Guerre’s Suite No. 2 in G minor. Looking beyond the palace’s glittering façade, Hall of Mirrors explores the lives, personalities and imagination that shaped one of Europe’s richest cultural eras.

Hall of Mirrors follows the success of Mishka’s acclaimed Hyperion debut, Reformation (2024), devoted to keyboard works by William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, John Bull and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and described by The Times as “a triumph... myriad subtleties of dynamics, touch and tone.” Turning from the English and northern European world of Reformation to the music of France, Mishka continues to champion early keyboard repertoire on the modern grand piano. Reformation reached No. 1 on the UK Classical Chart, was named one of The Times’ Best Classical Albums of 2024, selected as Classic FM’s Discovery of the Week and received a Critics’ Circle Award in 2025.

As Mishka writes in the accompanying booklet essay: “Behind the overwhelming grandeur of Versailles exists another palace, equal in fascination, one built not of stone, but of the memories and secrets found in the letters, diaries and journals of all the characters [...] who act as our witnesses to a remarkable era.”

Like the Hall of Mirrors itself, the programme reflects the many facets of this vibrant era through the music of three extraordinary composers. Couperin’s expressive character pieces offer an intimate portrait of the composer, while Rameau’s Suite in E minor brings together dance, theatricality and both French and Italian influences. At the heart of the album is Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, a child prodigy who performed before Louis XIV and was celebrated in her lifetime as “the marvel of our age”. In 1694, she published Céphale et Procris, the first opera written by a woman in France. Her adventurous, florid Suite in G minor combines dramatic Italianate touches with French rhetorical gestures and reflects her remarkable virtuosity at the keyboard.

Rather than attempting to recreate the sound of the harpsichord, Mishka remains committed to the expressive possibilities of the modern piano, revealing the warmth, colour and dramatic power of this repertoire for today’s audiences. As she explains: “The dramatic associations of this musical language, designed to be heard in grand halls and rooms, makes it, in my view, perfectly suited to the resonance, brilliance and warmth of the modern piano.”

As with Reformation, Mishka also wrote the accompanying booklet essay, weaving together historical research, musical insight and personal reflection on the people and stories behind the music.

To coincide with the album's release, Mishka will perform music from Hall of Mirrors at Wigmore Hall on 15 September 2026, including works by Couperin, Rameau and Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre.

Hailed as ‘one of the most thoughtful and sensitive of British pianists’ (The Times), Mishka Rushdie Momen captivates audiences with her refined and expressive playing. Rushdie Momen’s wide-ranging repertoire focuses on Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, and extends earlier to Gibbons and Rameau. Committed to performing new music, she has commissioned works from Nico Muhly and Vijay Iyer, and premiered Héloïse Werner’s An inviting object at the Lucerne Summer Festival in 2022.

Highlights of recent and future seasons include concerto debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, a tour with the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, and a BBC Radio 3 broadcast with the Ulster Orchestra. She has played with other notable orchestras, including the CBSO,Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, Britten Sinfonia, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and BBC Concert Orchestra. In recital, Mishka has appeared at the

Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Lucerne Festival, Zürich Tonhalle, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Antwerp deSingel, Piano Series, The Phillips

Collection (Washington, DC), New York’s Frick Collection and 92nd Street Y, with the coming season including debuts at CENART in Mexico City and Princeton University.

Equally at home as a chamber musician, Rushdie Momen has worked with recital partners Steven Isserlis, Guy Johnston, Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, Joshua Bell, Angela Hewitt, Timothy Ridout and Anthony Marwood. Festival engagements include those at the Heidelberger Frühling Festival, Rheingau Musik, Hindsgavl, Chipping Campden and Trasimeno, as well as regular appearances at the Casals Forum in Kronberg and at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove.

Rushdie Momen was The Times arts critics’ chosen nominee in the field of classical music for their 2021 Breakthrough Award, part of the South Bank Sky Arts Awards. Her debut recording for Hyperion—Reformation: Keyboard works by William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, John Bull & Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck—was issued in 2024 to wide critical acclaim, winning a Critics’ Circle Award.

Mishka Rushdie Momen studied with Joan Havill and Imogen Cooper at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She also studied periodically with Richard Goode, and at the

Kronberg Academy with Sir András Schiff, who has presented her in recital and orchestral engagements across the USA and Europe.