STEPHEN HOUGH PLAYS MOZART / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

STEPHEN HOUGH PLAYS MOZART

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (29 April 2022)

This review was first published on Bachtrack with the title "Fabio Biondi and Stephen Hough deliver surprises in Singapore".

Concert life has returned to normality in Singapore, with audiences packing it in for a full-strength Singapore Symphony Orchestra performing full-length concerts and partnering big-name soloists. Violinist Ray Chen and pianist Khatia Buniatishvili were recently greeted by cheering fans, and it was now the turn of British pianist Stephen Hough and Italian conductor Fabio Biondi.

 

On hearing the first two chords of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville Overture, one knew this was going to be something different. Loud but light, with not a single ounce of fat, was what informed the approach to the warhorse. That Biondi, well known for period instrument movement performances, was leading a symphony orchestra of modern instruments made this interesting. Could the music sound lithe yet carry sufficient weight to pack a punch? It did so without apology and the Rossinian crescendos, built up over several waves, were simply thrilling.

 

Mozart’s very popular Piano Concerto No.21 was not going to be common garden variety either. Despite the march-like rhythm established in the first movement’s orchestral ritornello, this reading would not be metronomic. Even before the piano’s entry, there was a marked ritardando, ushering in Hough’s short cadenza-like flourish before the solo proper. There were to be more of these 18^th century iterations of rubato (“stealing” of time for dramatic effect), notably in the finale.

 

To say Hough’s account was always polished and perpetually lively would belabour the point, so attention is paid to his witty and highly idiomatic cadenzas. The first movement’s improvisation relived earlier themes and motifs, later piqueing ears by shifting into the minor mode. The finale’s cadenza was no less involving, befitting the creative spirit that is Hough who is also totally accomplished as a composer and writer. If there were a slight reservation, the ubiquitous Andante slow movement came across more like an Allegretto. Was this was a conscious reaction against the sentimentality associated with this music? Almost everybody knows the name Elvira Madigan, but has anybody actually watched the tragic 1967 Swedish movie?    

Photo: PianoManiac

 

Everybody looks forward to Hough’s encores, and he offered two this evening. The first, a short trifle in A major by Bohemian composer Jan Vaclav Kalivoda could easily accompany a spot of yodelling, while the second by another Bohemian was far more familiar. But when was the last time anybody actually heard Antonin Dvorak’s Humoresque in G flat major (Op.101 No.7) in its original version for solo piano in a concert hall?  

Photo: PianoManiac

 

Hough’s first encore was deliberate, a prelude for the First Symphony in F minor by the same composer, better known by his Germanised name Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda (1801-1866). Even the “better known” is qualified as the Prague-born composer is hardly known outside of his native country, and certainly not in Singapore. A contemporary of Schubert and fellow subject of the Austro-Hungarian empire, he has been described as a symphonic link between Beethoven and Schumann. In four movements and playing for half an hour, this work by the 23-year-old Bohemian deserves to be heard.  

 

The ambiguous tonality at the first movement’s slow introduction certainly caught the ear, before definitively settling on F minor for the Allegro section. As a Sturm und Drang symphony, idiomatically it most resembles Mendelssohn’s First Symphony in C minor, also composed in 1824. The orchestra weathered it storms with conviction, then settling into the slow movement’s stately hymn-like opening. Arguably the symphony’s best movement, its contrasts between slow and fast showed the  true range of Kalliwoda’s skills. The third movement’s Menuetto and Trio was more like a Scherzo and Trio, more serious than sounding dainty in intent, before blazing into a furiously raging finale. That there was enough time to include an obligatory fugato was a nod to tradition. A very fine and engaging performance like this will win this almost forgotten composer many new friends.     

 

Star Rating: ****

Photo: PianoManiac

 

Photographs by Jam Yam (unless stated otherwise), courtesy of Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

STEPHEN HOUGH. EGYPTIAN PIANO CONCERTO / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

STEPHEN HOUGH. 
EGYPTIAN PIANO CONCERTO
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (13 September 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times with the title" "Pianist Stephen Hough delivers a French feast".

Under the baton of Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Litton, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra performed an all-French programme opening with Hector Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture. Not written as a prelude to any opera or play, this was an out-and-out orchestral showpiece quoting themes from the opera Benvenuto Cellini that highlighted both ensemble and solo prowess.

After a slickly delivered introduction, the lot fell to Elaine Yeo’s cor anglais, which sang a plaintive melody with true pathos. Italian sunshine and drama filled the work’s animated pages, and it was with general pinpoint articulation and brilliant brass that began the evening on a high note.

The concert’s selling point was celebrated British pianist Stephen Hough’s return in one of his favourite party pieces, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Fifth Piano Concerto also nicknamed the “Egyptian Concerto”. Incidentally, he made his Singapore debut with this same work way back in 1986. Except for the central movement which quotes a Nubian song, there was little African to be had.

From the outset, it was French gaiety that reigned. But far from being the froth and fluff, Hough’s fingers of scintillation were tempered with steel. The filigree so key to Saint-Saëns’ keyboard writing was never submerged by the orchestra’s exertions, and it was clear this was no traipse in the Tuileries.   

The slow movement’s exoticism was delightfully overdone, the piano crafting piquant tinkling bell sounds. With the help of percussion, the wafting aromas went beyond Cairo to reach even Batavia. The toccata-like maneuvers of the finale, supposedly mimicking spinning turbines of a steamship, were a tour de force of velocity. With soloist and orchestra charging headlong at full speed, there could only be one result:  roars of approval from a clearly enthused audience.    

As an encore, Hough made the splendid gesture of sharing centrestage with SSO Co-Concertmaster Lynnette Seah, the orchestra’s longest serving player who retires later this year, in Elgar’s Salut d’Amour. Her tone was sumptuous, and the accompaniment classy and refined, after which Hough added Debussy’s Clair de lune, which was simply a treat.

The orchestra completed the evening with Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D minor. Franck was a key French establishment figure despite being born in Belgium and having a Germanic musical outlook. The opening to his symphony would have reminded one of Wagner and Liszt (his tone poem Les Preludes in particular), and the orchestra responded with a reading of taut objectivity.

Strings were sounding resolute yet capable of suppleness in the outer movements, while string pizzicatos, harp and cor anglais (Elaine Yeo again) set the right mood for the soothing slow movement. The finale was an ecstatically driven ride, with conductor Litton making frequent small leaps on the podium. The symphony’s triumphant close belonged to the brass, hitting the glory notes with fearless aplomb. So how do an English pianist, American conductor and Singaporean orchestra fare in French music? Very well indeed.  

CD Review (The Straits Times, July 2018)

STEPHEN HOUGH'S 

DREAM ALBUM

Hyperion 68176 / *****

One has just about lost count of how many “Stephen Hough's Piano Albums” have been released since his very first anthology of delicious encore pieces and transcriptions (on Virgin Classics) first saw light of day in 1988. The British pianist's latest Dream Album is also his most personal. Seldom has gentle wit and prodigious technique been wedded to playing of such elegance, sophistication and personality.

Who would have thought of transforming Johann Strauss the Elder's rousing Radetzky March into a lilting and quintessentially Viennese Radetzky Waltz, or cross-dressing the Waltzing Matilda into a Caribbean rhumba? In his version of the 1950s Russian pop song Moscow Nights, he uses as a preface the opening chords of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto.

There is also a Singapore dimension to some of his transcriptions. The Bill Evans-coloured Niccolo's Waltz (inspired by Paganini's Caprice No.24) was dedicated to Goh Yew Lin, Chairman of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, while his yearning look at Dvorak's Songs My Mother Taught Me was written for local concert pianist and teacher Victor Khor. 

Original works by Liszt, Sibelius, Elgar, Dohnanyi, Mompou, Ponce, Chaminade and Julius Isserlis (cellist Steven Isserlis' grandfather) among others complete this lovely collection. There is no shock and awe in the playing, only the pleasure of luxuriating in the company of intimate and well-loved friends.  

STEPHEN HOUGH. RACHMANINOV PIANO CONCERTO 1 / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

STEPHEN HOUGH.

RACHMANINOV PIANO CONCERTO 1

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (14 October 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 October 2017 with the title "Passion, power and elegance of Romantic proportions".

It would seem that the names of Stephen Hough and Rachmaninov sold this concert of 20^th century music by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. They are old friends, as it was in 1998 at Victoria Concert Hall when the British pianist first played a Rachmaninov concerto in Singapore. On that occasion, it was also Rachmaninov's First Piano Concerto that took top billing.

Hough now adopts a bolder and brasher view of the work composed in 1892 but heavily revised in 1917. Launching himself into its thickets with fearless abandon, he is unafraid to unleash its unabashed Romantic emotions. Then and now, his pianism remains one of passion and power, allied with an unflappable elegance that has been a hallmark.

A dramatic ending to
Rachmaninov's First Piano Concerto.

The slow movement's gentle solo or the finale's central interlude, where he and orchestral strings had a love-in, were easily high points in this eventful concerto. A final blaze of fireworks elicited vociferous applause, and a reward of two original Hough encores with an Asian twist. What began like Debussy's Clair de lune in a wrong key morphed into P.Ramlee's Getaran Jiwa, and Koreans in the audience would have delighted in Arirang dressed up like a Rachmaninov romance.

The Music & Makan girls
mug for a shot with Stephen Hough.

The concert helmed by Finnish guest conductor Hannu Lintu opened with the Singapore premiere of Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's Fourth Symphony, completed as recently as 1992. Here was atonality's most approachable face, one that kept both orchestra and audience engaged for some concentrated 22 minutes.

Over a quiet, slow pulse, Li Xin's clarinet emerged like the sun rising through fine mist. This introduction to the symphony's torso was one of detailed textural and timbral colour. Soon the ever-shifting dynamics saw the orchestra swing from calmness to violence, from the ethereal to the plethoric, crafting pointillist soundscapes and then broadening to far denser canvasses.

The orchestra responded acutely yet sensitively to conductor Lintu's taut and clear-headed direction. Anything less would have resulted in incoherence and what might seem like random orchestral doodlings. The short emphatic drive to the work's powerful close was also convincingly dealt with.

SSO has lived with Shostakovich's First Symphony since its second season in 1980 when it performed at the old Singapore Conference Hall. Ensemble and solo playing has progressed over the years, contributing to a tight and cogent reading. The single constant was violinist Lynnette Seah, Leader of 37 years ago, who more than ably shared solos with present Concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich in the first movement.

Pathos, wit and irony, calling cards of this precocious symphony by a mere teenager, were laid on trenchantly through its four movements. If there were standout moments, Rachel Walker's oboe in the slow movement, Liu Chang's droll bassoon and Jon Dante's muted trumpet in the finale deserved the plaudits among the highlights of what was a truly distinguished performance. SSO's mastery and credentials in 20^th century music are now beyond any doubt.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2015)

MENDELSSOHN, GRIEG

& HOUGH Cello Sonatas

STEVEN ISSERLIS, Cello

STEPHEN HOUGH, Piano

Hyperion 68079 / *****

How does British pianist-composer Stephen Hough's Cello Sonata figure in this new album of Romantic cello sonatas? Interestingly it is scored for cello and piano left hand and carries the Beethovenian subtitle “Les Adieux” (The Farewell). A single-movement work playing for 20 minutes, it is a darkly introspective work that distils the fraught and melancholic emotions of Romanticism through a tonal musical language that is as approachable as Shostakovich, Ravel and Fauré. Perhaps expressing regret, sorrow and parting, it receives a heartfelt performance from British cellist Steven Isserlis and the composer himself as pianist.

The work sits comfortably two rather different and not so often heard Romantic sonatas. Edvard Grieg's Cello Sonata in G minor (Op.36) was the closest thing he wrote to a cello concerto, and includes familiar themes to be found in his earlier Piano Concerto and Sigurd Josalfar incidental music. Another instance of musical deja vu (“Where have we heard this before?”), Mendelssohn's Second Cello Sonata in D major (Op.38) is typical of his ebullience and tunefulness, a good example of the early Romantic style. The juxtapositions on this album make total sense, and the high musicianship displayed by both performers is to be savoured.  

NEW SEASONS

GIDON KREMER, Violin

Kremerata Baltica

Deutsche Grammophon 479 4817 / ***

Is it blasphemous to state that “emperor's new clothes” is the reason why every new work by American composer Philip Glass is greeted with nothing but adulation? In his Second Violin Concerto (2010), also known as The American Four Seasons, he rehashes just about every cliché he has worked to death in earlier works, including his First Violin Concerto (1987). The Seasons are in 8 parts, with a Bachian solo (entitled Prologue and Songs Nos.1 to 3) preceding each movement proper. As expected, the limited musical material is built upon tonal triads and repeated endlessly to pad up its 40-plus minutes. So what else is new?

Georgian composer Giya Kancheli's Ex Contrario (2006) for violin, cello, keyboard, bass guitar and strings is minimalist in a different way. Its static pace, long stretches of pianissimo and gaping silences are drawn out to an almost interminable half hour. As brief fillers, the Estonian Arvo Pärt but cheerful Estonian Lullaby features the Girls Choir from the Vilnius Choir School, while Shigeru Umebayashi Yumeji's Theme from the film In The Mood For Love is sentimental and soothing movie music with a popular twist. Superstar Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer and his string band give slick and polished performances in the demonstration class, but that is the very least one would expect for the premium-priced outlay involved.

SSO CONCERT: STEPHEN HOUGH PLAYS DVORAK / Review

STEPHEN HOUGH PLAYS DVORAK

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (4 October 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 October 2014 with the title "Definitive Dvorak".

Of the piano concertos that are recorded with some frequency, the one that has long eluded the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s programmers is Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Concerto in G minor.  That is until now. The key has been to find a soloist that can make its music stand out beyond the mere notes. Its belated Singapore premiere was given by British pianist Stephen Hough, who joins an elite group of pianist like Sviatoslav Richter, Rudolf Firkusny and Andras Schiff to have championed and recorded it to much acclaim.

Its relative neglect is a mystery because the work is full of good melodies and bravura passages for the piano. The first movement is Beethovenian, down to its opening tutti and piano’s entry, reminiscent of the German’s Fourth Piano Concerto, and a demanding chord-laden cadenza. Hough musicality shone through like a beacon, with the orchestra sensitively supporting his every musing and flourish.

The slow movement had the quality of a nocturne based on folk song, which received subtle responses with every turn of phrase. This was before breaking out in the spirited and whimsical romp of the finale, where Hough’s steadiness, sense of rhythm and pulse were paramount. While this concerto still lags in popularity to the cello and violin concertos, an excellent reading such as this will certainly further its cause.

In keeping with the concert’s title, Hough’s two encores were also by Dvorak, his own delectable transcription of Songs My Mother Taught Me, and the ubiquitous Humoresque in G flat major (Op.101 No.8) in its original piano version.

The rest of the concert, conducted by SSO Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu, was decidedly Nordic. The Dane Carl Nielsen’s Helios Overture was an excellent curtain-raiser, a musical depiction of the sun rising and setting, with the Greek god Helios riding his chariot across the skies in between. The double basses opened with a just audible light hum, over which the brass warmed up and eventually took flight in full-throated fashion.

The brass was just as impressive in the Finn Jean Sibelius’s Second Symphony, for which Kamu’s authority in his compatriot’s music was absolute. The warmth radiated from the playing at its outset, palpably felt on the strings, could melt icebergs and glaciers. The pacing was broad with its intent, and one was made to feel that it was leading to something transcendent. No moment felt sluggish as the music made its way from furtive beginnings to nationalist flag-waving glory.

Like the tone poem Finlandia, this symphony was to inflame passions and patriotic fervour in the hearts of its first listeners, and so it was in this performance. The third movement’s agitation had a rallying voice in Rachel Walker’s excellent oboe solo, which was as pure and untainted as possibly imagined, and the build-up to the big tune of the finale was thrilling to say the least.

The criticism that the SSO reserves its best by performing well only in overseas concerts must be countered with vigour, and this was a concert that honestly and truly silences the naysayers and their little idle notions.

FANTASIES IN SOUND / Singapore International Piano Festival 2012 / Review

FANTASIS IN SOUND

19^th Singapore International Piano Festival

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Last Thursday, Saturday and Sunday

(28 and 30 June, 1 July 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 July 2012 with the title "Piano fantasies come true".

The theme of this year’s piano festival, Fantasies In Sound, was apt in a number of ways. First it explored the genre of the piano sonata, coming from the Italian word sonare, which means “to sound”. The festival also moved to the accommodatingly reverberant acoustics of SOTA Concert Hall, a venue that matches the old Victoria Concert Hall’s engaging ambience with the added quality of greater intimacy.

And there can be no more intimate music than Franz Schubert’s, who found the most sensitive and wonderfully imaginative of advocates in the Briton Paul Lewis on the festival’s first evening. The Moments Musicaux, six very different short pieces, were crafted with the love and caring detail of a lapidary. The familiar F minor number (No.3) had a rustic Slavic charm, contrasted with the martial goose-stepping and song-like plaint of the final pieces.

These served as the prelude to two Sonatas in A minor, a key often portraying tragedy and introspection. Far from sounding monochromatic, Lewis’s journey read like two consecutive chapters of a rather absorbing book. The shorter sonata (D.784) evoked initially tension, then bell-like clarity in the slow movement before rippling brilliance of a quicksilver finale. The longer sonata (D.845), which began with similar moroseness, then expanded into an epic sprawl, expertly guided by the pianist’s compelling sense of narrative.  

Saturday evening introduced 24-year-old Chiyan Wong, a rising star from Hong Kong based in London. In Schumann’s rhapsodic Kreisleriana, he brought out the elements of fantasy with a keen mastery of its myriad dynamics and shades, but his vision of the eight conjoint movements as a whole lacked cohesiveness. Perhaps more time is needed to live and grow with this often elusive masterpiece.

No reservations about the Lisztian second half, which skilfully juxtaposed the poetic with the pugilistic. Liszt’s By The Lake of Wallenstadt and his transcription of Hans von Bulow’s Dante Sonnet revealed Wong’s sublime way with legato and inner voices. Fingers and fists of fury livened up the Dante Sonata and a much-truncated version of the chop-socky Hexameron Variations, based on a march from Bellini’s opera I Puritani.  

In the latter, a number of variations were dropped while Wong added several of his own to spectacular effect. Vulgar music, no doubt, but played with polish and finesse. This statuesque and charismatic young man is the “Bruce Lee of the piano”.  

The final night was a re-acquaintance with a familiar favourite, Britain’s Stephen Hough who demonstrated the broadest definition of the sonata form thought possible. Even the opening Beethoven Moonlight Sonata was unconventional in its form. Its tumultuous finale led into Hough’s own sonata Broken Branches, a 16-part anti-virtuoso essay that was anything but non-virtuosic. The seeming paradox was borne by the music’s reticence and eloquent restraint that reflected his devout Catholic faith.

The quiet that opened and closed its 16 minutes or so was starkly contrasted with the violent orgasmic catharsis that is Scriabin’s Fifth Sonata, the supposed “poem of ecstasy”. The effect was like that of a tightly wound spring suddenly let loose with the consequent repercussions.

A similar hell-for-leather ride awaited in Liszt’s mighty Sonata in B minor, perhaps the greatest single movement in the repertoire. Anger and anguish coloured this account which saw Hough operating much of its half-hour on the edge, as if his life and very existence depended on it.

This was the sort of once-in-a-lifetime reading that can never be repeated, only experienced viscerally in the flesh. Seeing the unflappable Hough come close to sweating blood, not to mention his four generous encores, are the very reasons why people turn off their electronic gadgets and still come to live concerts.

Some Photos from the Singapore International Piano Festival 2012

Paul Lewis acknowledges the applause.

Its really nice to attend to Singapore's International Piano Festival as an outsider, rather than a member of its artistic / organising group. The pressure's off and you get to enjoy the music more, without worrying about the logistics, box office sales et cetera. You still get to meet old friends and make new acquaintances, all in the shared love of the pianoforté. Here are some pics I took at this year's festival, the first time its being held at the School of the Arts.

Paul Lewis performed as his second encore Schubert's Moment Musicaux No.2, a piece he had earlier played in his recital programme. By this time, his fingers had fully "warmed up", and it sounded even better.

Singaporean piano virtuoso Albert Lin and his mother meet Paul Lewis. Mrs Lin is a big fan of Lewis, and has a large cache of his Youtube videos in her PC. 

Australian piano technician Walter Haass is the reason why the Steinway grand pianos sound great whether in VCH, YST or SOTA. Here he is flanked by two of Britain's finest pianists of our time, Stephen Hough and Paul Lewis. 

I've always wanted to meet Bruce Lee. Here he is reincarnated as the young Hong Kong virtuoso Chiyan Wong!

Stephen Hough performed no less than four encores, including the fastest and most furious version of Chopin's First Ballade.

Stephen Hough autographs a copy of his piano sonata Broken Branches, plus makes a few changes to its dynamic markings.

Pianophiles of the world unite! Pianomaniac has a final evening drink with Stany Kol (France/Laos) and Satoru Takaku (Japan), who are regular overseas visitors to the Festival. Only Buzz Singer (USA/Thailand) is missing in action this year!

THE LISZT CONCERTOS / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

THE LISZT CONCERTOS
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (26 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 November 2011 with the title "Attacking with force and fury".

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s tribute to the Franz Liszt bicentenary came late in the year, but it could not have been better timed with the visit of British virtuoso Stephen Hough. To witness both of the Hungarian-born phenom’s piano concertos in the same evening was a luxury, but with Hough at the helm, it was added pleasure.

Make no mistake, the concert was conducted by the young Singaporean maestro Darrell Ang, but it was Hough who dictated the proceedings in the First Piano Concerto in E flat major. From the outset, the work was taken by the scruff of the neck, from which there was no let off. Rarely has the opening octaves and cadenza been attacked with such force and fury.

Forget the few wrong notes in the fray, these were swept away by the oncoming tsunami of sound. There was some respite in the short nocturne-like second movement, but then it was action stations and adrenaline on overdrive all the way to the final bar. Credit also goes to percussionist Mark Suter for his all-important contribution on the humble triangle; timing it to perfection is far more difficult than one imagines.

The Second Piano Concerto in A major, the greater work of the two, provided more semblance of sanity. Not only is the piano better integrated with the orchestra, its unfolding narrative showed Hough to be more than flashy fingers. His overall finesse and magisterial control were a joy to behold, and there is no finer moment than that wonderful passage when he sensitively accompanied cellist Ng Pei Sian’s lovely solo.

After the fire and brimstone topped off with outrageous octave glissandi, there was even time for an encore. Hough’s own transcription of Dvorak’s Songs My Mother Taught Me, was touchingly dedicated to SSO’s former principal violist, the Czech-born Jiri Heger (left), who retires after 32 years of faithful service.

Without Beethoven, there would be no Liszt or Wagner. That was the thematic thread of the concert which began with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No.2. It shares the same themes as the far better known and definitive Overture No.3, but made for fascinating listening with its thrilling build-up to the climatic offstage trumpet solo.

Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture and Venusberg Music closed the concert on a high, with conductor Ang’s direction emphasising on lightness and movement rather than solemn penitence. The concert’s muted ending more than made up for the revelry and wildness that came before.

SSO Concert: Mahler Festival: Tragic Symphony / Concert

MAHLER FESTIVAL:

THE TRAGIC SYMPHONY

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (16 July 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 19 July 2010.

In October this year, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra will perform in London for the first time in almost 20 years. The soloist for that concert will be the acclaimed British pianist Stephen Hough, and their performance this evening of Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto was a trial run for that Royal Festival Hall date.

For a work lasting barely 20 minutes, Hough (left) milked the dizzying showpiece for all its worth. Going beyond its stampeding octaves and filigreed prestidigitation, his account was one of unfailing grace and understated elegance. Far from the Victorian prissiness one almost expects, it pulsated with rude health yet teased with a wealth of delectable touches and tantalising rubato.

From this ever-resourceful pianist, one delights in the unexpected and his encore was no exception. Opening and closing with the chordal sequence that heralds Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, Hough’s own transcription of the popular Russian song Moscow Evenings was pure cheek, topped with a shot of vodka.

It was all serious stuff for the concert’s latter half. Detractors of Gustav Mahler will cite his Sixth Symphony as the most hysterical and self-pitying of the lot. That is only part of the story, an almost autobiographical one of a great life ruthlessly cut down at its prime. SSO Music Director Lan Shui (left) helmed a memorable performance that recognised the tragedy, yet acknowledged the fears and celebrated the triumphs. The funeral marches in the first and last movements were fast, and tautly guided. These were no solemn processions of final repose, instead trajectories hurtling inexorably towards a certain doom. The scoring is raucous, even precious and vulgar at parts. Unusual sonorities abounded, from dangling cowbells, prophetic sledgehammer blows to that unearthly pairing of blaring tuba and twanging harp for the cataclysmic finale.

The final half hour of hopes raised and cruelly dashed ranks among Mahler’s greatest utterances. While the orchestra might have benefited from extra rehearsals to round off the flaws and raw bits, there was no denying the energy, heart and care for detail invested in this performance. For Shui, this marked a personal completion of Mahler’s eleven symphonies with the SSO, a rewarding journey that stakes the claim that we have a bona fide and convincing Mahler orchestra in our midst.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, July 2010)

TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concertos

STEPHEN HOUGH, Piano

Minnesota Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä

Hyperion 67711/2 (2CDs)

*****

In this new cycle of Tchaikovsky’s four piano concertos, British pianist Stephen Hough adopts a “brave new world” approach. The familiar warhorse First Concerto is taken at close to breakneck speed, clocking in at 32 minutes (most take around 35). While some look for maestoso (majesty) in the 1st movement’s big tune, Hough’s eschews sentimentality and cannot be accused of self-indulgence or protractedness. The Second Concerto, maligned simply because it isn’t the First, positively benefits for this lean muscularity. This set offers three versions of the lovely 2nd movement (almost a triple concerto with substantial violin and cello solos) – Tchaikovsky’s original, Alexander Siloti’s ruthlessly truncated edition and Hough’s idealised vision.

A fascinating listen, especially with a CD player’s programming button. The 2-movement Concert Fantasia and single-movement Third Concerto also receive excellent performances, and Hough adds two of his song transcriptions. The audience in these “live” performances accords very enthusiastic applause after each concerto, and deservedly so.

SSO Concert: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto Extravaganza with Stephen Hough / Review

TCHAIKOVSKY
Piano Concerto Extravaganza
STEPHEN HOUGH, Piano
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
YOEL LEVI / KRZYSZTOF URBANSKI, Conductors
Fridays (3 & 10 July 2009)

An edited version of this review was published by The Straits Times on 13 July 2009.

The great Russian composer Tchaikovsky wrote four piano concertos, but it has always been the First Concerto (Op.23) that is over-performed and loved by audiences the world over. Its successors have suffered in comparison; their major key modes missing out on the Slavic pathos so abundant in the B flat minor. And it also takes a rare and superlative pianist to pull them off convincingly, if given the chance.

Briton Stephen Hough (left) who performs all the concertos at the BBC Proms this year gave Singaporeans a sneak preview of those “Cinderella” concertos. The Second Concerto in G major (Op.44) risks sounding overblown and bloated, but Hough’s attack in the resolute opening chords allayed those fears, yet displaying much sensitivity in the more reflective passages. The 1st movement cadenza, one that tops its predecessor in bluster and sheer notes, came through with great panache, its thrilling scales-laden lead-up to the orchestral tutti particularly gripping.

The most sublime moments were shared by Hough, violinist Alexander Souptel and cellist Roberto Trainini in the slow movement, which was performed without cuts. In this mini “triple concerto”, Tchaikovsky’s melodic writing seemed unsurpassed. While the finale’s romp featured ironically one of his most vulgar themes, Hough’s scintillating runs octaves and runs saved the day.

The Concert Fantasy (Op.56), also in G major, is an arguably better work, and unique in the concerto repertory. The orchestra performs for just a few minutes at the beginning and end of the 1st movement, in between a humongous cadenza that overshadows all else. Hough had much resource to spare, and found subtlety amid the barnstorming. One particularly tricky passage combining right hand filigree with left hand melody defined his brand of pianism – the virtuoso as poet. Contrastes, the 2nd movement, juxtaposed the Slavic dumka (a lament) with a Cossack dance to brilliant effect, with cellist Trainini’s (left) duet with Hough a total delight.

The Third Concerto in E flat major (Op.75), in a single movement and receiving its Singapore premiere, was the weakest of the lot. It seemed destined that even Hough’s dedicated advocacy – which included yet another long cadenza and lots more bravura – would not save it from its dense orchestration and pretty much deserved obscurity. Do not expect to hear it again from the SSO anytime soon.

Hough’s lovely encores on two evenings were quite something else. His own transcription of Deng Yu Hsien’s Pining for the Spring Breeze (Wan Chun Feng, or Ban Choon Hong in Hokkien) raised an audible heave of recognition from the audience, and Grieg’s Notturno in C major (from Lyric Pieces) provided an oasis of solace from the evening’s torrent of decibels.

The balance of both concerts showcased more Russian music. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade is the classic SSO warhorse and calling card, one where concertmaster Souptel’s violin sang unfettered while the orchestra painted vivid scenes of oriental fantasy under Israeli conductor Yoel Levi’s baton. The Young Pole Krzysztof Urbanski (left) impressed with his fine control and leadership in Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No.1.

If there were two moments that revealed the coming of age of the 30-year-old orchestra, it was in the fine string tremolos and rapt pianissimos achieved at the beginning of the Finale in the Stravinsky, and the poignant and seamless Death of Åse (Grieg). Loud and fast have become so “yesterday”.