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

Sir Stephen Hough at the Barbican

By Christopher Woodley, 05 December 2024

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“engaging the keyboard with the gentlest of caresses”

Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 4 December 2024

Chaminade, Automne

Chaminade, 6 Pièces humoristiques for Piano, Op.87: Autrefois

Chaminade, Les sylvains (The Fauns), Op.60

Schumann, Fantasie in C major, Op.17

Hough, Sonatina Nostalgica

Chopin, Piano Sonata no. 3 in B minor, Op.58

Schumann, Fantasiestucke: Warum, Op.12 no.3

Sherman, Mary Poppins: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (arr. Hough)

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

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.

*****

Rafters rattled: Hough and Wigglesworth at the BBC Proms

Mark Pullinger, 18th July

Sir Stephen Hough launches the Proms' Rachmaninov celebrations with a winning rendition of the composer's First Piano Concerto.

****1

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Christopher Woodley

Christopher’s professional background is in the public sector, and includes a spell in music librarianship. A composer, he is a keen follower of contemporary music and has attended all but four editions of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, including the first concert in 1978. Other musical passions include a fascination with the “bad boys” of the New Complexity fixation, particularly the god-like Brian Ferneyhough – arguably the best thing to have come out of Coventry. When not listening to Boulez, Christopher relaxes by frequenting the fields, orchards, woodlands and pubs on the Weald of Kent, where he lives.