Stephen Hough

I can't believe he played that Bach Toccata. I thought 'serious' people pooh-poohed that piece. But I like it too and used to play it on my grandma's organ and pretend to be Vincent Price.
Anyway, I skipped to the encores and unfortunately can't give any definitive answer. I liked all of them though. The second one sounds like Albeniz, Ginastera, or Villa-Lobos - that's about all I can think of right now.

 

Hye-Jin, I have found out the names of those encore pieces, that is if you're still interested. I certainly am, because one of them is a Mompou piece that is definitely going to go right up on my piano after my competition is done.

 

Yes, the last one is Mompou - specifically Jeunes Filles au jardin from his Scènes d'Enfants suite. I think I'll look at that set soon. I love Mompou! The other two pieces he played were:
1. Albeniz/Hough: Capricho Catalan
2. Hough: On Falla

So looks like these two are Hough's own arrangements. Oh well, at least it appears that he's another Spanish-composer nut. Great!!

 

A bit of a bump in this thread! But I quite like him as a pianist.

His blog, http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/au ... phenhough/ is often interesting.

 

I'm glad for the bump! I was just setting up to do some recording, when tree-cutter guys showed up at the neighbors. Big loud truck, chain saws, stump grinders....Now I have to wait probably a couple hours. Grrr :x At least I can read this interesting article you posted, Andrew. I always enjoy reading Hough's stuff. The title of this article, "Liszt: the man who invented stage fright", boy is that something or what? And so many interesting postings regarding playing with the score or by memory. To use the score, or to not use the score....that is the question. Actually, that is my question every time I'm considering playing in public.

 

Yes, it's a very serious question. The title is a little misleading in the sense that stage fright takes a lot more forms than worrying about memory failures (I vividly remember playing the most difficult piece I have ever learnt to a packed concert hall, having the score there for reasons of "safety" .. and before starting thinking "what on earth am I doing here? Why did I decide to play this?" and wishing I could magically exit unnoticed from the hall!) I usually play from memory, not because you necessarily play the piece better that way, but because I believe that the audience expects it.

There are arguments for both sides, but the one thing you should never do is play from memory with the score in front of you (as an aide-memoire should you get stuck). The time spent having the memory lapse and then trying to work out where you are can be very embarrassing. Or you jump forward and your pageturner has to work out where you've gone to..

 

I am guilty of that and I agree to a point. Yes, if you've memorized the piece, and then at the last moment you decide to bring the score up to the piano with you, then you may have a problem. Like you said, if you're not used to playing from the score, then if you are playing by memory and then look up at the score you may not know right away where you are on the paper. So I used to feel like either you plan on using the score, or you don't - it's that simple and you should stick to your decision. However, I'm changing my mind now. I think I'd rather have that pause in finding my place in the score, than to be totally stuck if I've had a major memory lapse and then just sit there mortified. That's happened to me. I was playing a big piece and got stuck in the middle somewhere and my fingers just stopped and hovered over the keys for what felt like eternity. Somehow I managed to backup and restart that section and got through all the way to the end but I was so shook up mentally that I couldn't concentrate and really didn't have a clue as to what I was playing. My fingers were just sort of on automatic pilot and because of that my playing was not musical at all. I felt terrible because I knew I could have played the piece much better if all that hadn't happened.

 

Ok. Two comments/suggestions.

1. If you are going to play an (already memorised) piece from the score in concert, do yourself a big favour, and practice it with the score. Retain the memorisation by all means, but having run through it repeatedly from the score means you are far less likely to get lost in the event of accidents.

2. I strongly believe that if you have a memory lapse, don't go back. Go forward. Mentally select a nearby bar which constitutes something structurally significant (this shouldn't be too difficult if you have thought about the architecture of the piece and if you keep calm). Find a way to connect, harmonically or melodically, even rhythmically, wherever you currently are at on the piano to that bar, join them up and continue. It looks much more convincing to an audience than stopping and starting. Half of the time they won't even know! (Disclaimer: I'm good at improvisation, so the process seems easier to me than maybe it actually is).

 

I strongly agree with you here!

Good tip. Next time I have to perform, I'll practice improvising in random places - if that's even possible. I'm not a good improviser. I'm also afraid I would randomly start playing "Misty" because that's what I always play when I'm just screwing around.

 

That makes perfect sense and is my experience also. It's very confusing to your sub- or semi-conscious spatial memory of the piece on the page, to say nothing of introducing page turns in unexpected places! Even same edition, different binding scenarios where left hand pages end up on the right and vice versa can be pretty disorientating.

 

Hye-Jin, I'm not sure if you are going to read this, but I saw Stephen Hough play yesterday afternoon in Chicago. He was not part of my regular subscription series, but when I learned he was coming to Chicago, I splurged and purchased one more concert. I’m glad I did, because it turned out to be one of my favorite concerts to date.

In case anyone else is interested, this was his program: Beethoven - Sonata in C-sharp Minor, (Moonlight), Hough - Sonata for Piano (broken branches), Scriabin - Sonata No. 5 in F-sharp Major, Op. 53, Liszt - Sonata in B Minor

It’s been a while since I have watched/listened to anyone play the Moonlight – the last movement is certainly fun to watch! And he did a bang-up job on it too!

Next up was his own composition, "Broken Branches". A very interesting set; I liked the sound of it – some real neat harmonies and such. I found it a little ironic that this was the only time in which he read from the score on the piano. He wrote the music, so you’d think he’d remember what he wrote. Perhaps it is still so new that it hasn’t had time to fully sink into his memory yet...

I was not familiar with the Scriabin piece, but I liked it. At times I heard some jazzy-sounding chords.

The Liszt Sonata – of course I’ve heard this piece many times, but have to say that I so much enjoyed Hough’s playing of it. Not sure if I was in a good place in my mind, like it was a good piano-listening day because the stars were aligned correctly or what, but his playing moved me like I’ve never been moved before. I can’t really explain it.

He played two encores, both Chopin! The first was the Waltz in A-flat, Op. 69, no. 1. This was the very first Chopin piece I ever played and have a recording of it on the site. But WOW I loved the way Hough played it!! He did some different things that I had not considered before – I really think I have to redo my version now. The second encore was the ever-popular Nocturne Op. 9, no. 2, which happens to be the nocturne I like the least! I guess I’m so tired of it and can barely stand listening to it anymore. But Hough’s playing made it much more bearable.

Overall, Hough has wonderful technique. He can play so delicately and inserts so much character into the music that for me it was like hearing this music for the first time.