COMPOSERS: Cramer,Friedman,Hough,Liszt/Buzoni.,Mozart
LABELS: Hyperion
ALBUM TITLE: A Mozart Album
WORKS: Piano works
PERFORMER: Stephen Hough
CATALOGUE NO: CDA 67598
A bold and dramatic account of Mozart’s K475 C minor Fantasia opens this memorable and imaginatively devised recital. While emphasising the prophetically romantic nature of the music, Stephen Hough takes great care not to overplay its more forceful passages. Likewise, Hough steers a judicious course through the elegant B flat Sonata, K333, providing sly touches of humour in the Finale and holding a wonderful cantabile tone in the slow movement. After an equally riveting account of Mozart’s less well-known C minor Fantasia, K396, the rest of this warmly recorded disc presents an intriguing sequence of Mozart tributes including Ignaz Friedman’s somewhat twee re-harmonisation of the famous Minuet from the D major Divertimento, and Hough’s witty and inventive Mozart Transformations (after Poulenc), the latter piece demonstrating a brilliant capacity for pastiche bringing together two very distinctive musical personalities in a sometimes unexpected alliance. The final party piece, the Liszt/Busoni Fantasia on themes from The Marriage of Figaro, is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser given an exhilarating performance guaranteed to bring the house down.
Mozart, Cramer, Friedman, Hough, Liszt/Buzoni.
A bold and dramatic account of Mozart’s K475 C minor Fantasia opens this memorable and imaginatively devised recital. While emphasising the prophetically romantic nature of the music, Stephen Hough takes great care not to overplay its more forceful passages. Likewise, Hough steers a judicious course through the elegant B flat Sonata, K333, providing sly touches of humour in the Finale and holding a wonderful cantabile tone in the slow movement.
Published: January 20, 2012 at 4:08 pm