Perfume or cigar smoke?

By Zoltán Szabó, 16 September 2014

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Reviewed at City Recital Hall, Sydney on 15 September 2014

Debussy, La plus que lente

Debussy, Estampes

Chopin, Ballades

Debussy, Children's Corner, suite

Debussy, L'Isle joyeuse, Op.26

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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Zoltán Szabó

Zoltán Szabó is a cellist and musicologist. Having migrated from his native Hungary to Australia in 1985, he worked with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Sydney until 1991, when he became Principal Cello with Opera Australia. In 2017, he was awarded with a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD). Currently, he is teaching music history and musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Stephen Hough’s Sydney recital: Perfume or cigar smoke?