Stephen Hough's Dream Album: Piano Bonbons

Stephen Hough (piano)

Few pianists today could devise such a recital—their own transcriptions and variations on well-known classics included as a matter of course—and seldom can these graceful, delightful pieces have had such consummate musicianship lavished on them. Such stuff as dreams are made on …

anon.:
 Matilda's Rhumba

Albéniz:
 Capricho Catalan (No. 5 from España, Op. 165)

Chaminade:
 Pas des ésharpes Op. 37

Coates, E:
 By the Sleepy Lagoon

Dohnányi:
 Rhapsody No. 3 in C major, Op. 11 No. 3

Hough:
 Iver-song 'Lullaby'
 Niccolo's Waltz
 Osmanthus Reverie
 Osmanthus Romp
 Radetzky Waltz

Liszt:
 Transcendental Study, S139 No. 11 'Harmonies du soir'

Love:
 Das Alte Lied (from The Third Man)

Ponce, M:
 Intermezzo No. 1

Seymer:
 Solöga (Sun-eye)

Solovyov-Sedoy:
 Podmoskovnye vechera

Tate, A:
 Somewhere a voice is calling

"Childhood memories are summoned, plus people and places…Indeed, there’s so much playfulness and charm here that the listener might well pant for some extra ballast from meatier things. It comes eventually from ‘Harmonies du soir’ and the F minor Etude from Liszt’s Transcendental Studies, both of them majestically, opulently despatched…But still lighter items dominate…A sweet album, this, superbly played and recorded."
BBC Music Magazine - July 2018 ****

"A bran tub of bonbons, yes, but much more than that: it is also a portrait of an artist in love with music of all sorts (including, with no apology, the unfashionable and the second-rate if it happens to appeal to him), of a master transcriber and of that rare animal, a concert pianist who is not afraid to mix high jinks with high art...Witty, wistful, extrovert, introspective and cheeky by turn, this is a masterclass in a certain style of piano-playing, and a dream of an album."
Gramophone Magazine - July 2018