Glimmers of light: Stephen Hough brings Wigmore Hall back to life

Stephen Hough

Stephen Hough in an empty Wigmore Hall

By Mark Pullinger, 01 June 2020

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“Absence, they say, makes the heart grow fonder.”

Reviewed at Wigmore Hall, London on 1 June 2020

Bach, Violin Partita no. 2 in D minor, BWV1004: Chaconne arr. Busoni

Schumann, Fantasie in C major, Op.17

Gounod, Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach

Sir Stephen Hough, Piano

Hindoyan and Hough bring a new dream team to Liverpool

Glyn Mon Hughes, 27th November

Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto comes alive as Stephen Hough joins Domingo Hindoyan and the RLPO in an explosive performance of this dramatic work.

*****

Majestic Brahms from Sir Stephen Hough and Elim Chan in Sydney

Zoltán Szabó, 17th May

Elim Chan expertly conducts the SSO through a varied programme featuring an Australian fanfare, Russian ballet music and Brahms' First Piano Concerto with Sir Stephen Hough.

****1

A knight-errant on the road: Sir Stephen Hough at the Barbican

Christopher Woodley, 4th December

Sir Stephen Hough continues his advocacy of Chaminade with three of her miniatures and gives passionate performances of Schumann' and Chopin.

****1

Stephen Hough: old-school virtuosity without the showmanship

Phil Parker, 29th November

Mary Poppins would surely have a word for Sir Stephen Hough’s Crucible Playhouse recital... and she’d be right.

****1

Sir Mark Elder and the CBSO challenge expectations

Simon Cummings, 16th October

Together with soloist Sir Stephen Hough, the CBSO and Sir Mark Elder reinvent Brahms’ First Piano Concerto, present the complex non-narrative of Janáček The Fiddler's Child and suggest real happiness in Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony.

****1

Stephen Hough plays his entertaining piano concerto in Manchester

Peter Connors, 15th May

Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé are flawless in Dvořák, Butterworth and Elgar, while Sir Stephen Hough joins the ranks of virtuoso pianists performing their own concertos.

*****

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.