Stephen Hough brings blazing technique and insight to varied repertoire

By Lawrence Budmen

Published in South Florida Classical Review

For over four decades, Stephen Hough has been a commanding force on the world’s concert stages. His Miami recitals for the Friends of Chamber Music have always been standout events. On Monday night, he returned with a stellar performance at Florida International University’s Wertheim Performing Arts Center. Hough’s musical insight and stunning technical facility have only deepened over the years. He was introduced by South Florida-based British conductor James Judd, a longtime collaborator.

While his repertoire is huge, including many rarely heard pieces, music of the romantic era has always been Hough’s forte and it formed the main focus of his program. Three short pieces by Cécile Chaminade were enchanting appetizers. Hough gave full reign to the lyricism of Automne, the sentimentality in Les Sylvains, and the folksy charm of L’Autre Fois.

In lesser hands, Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor can seem episodic and overtly bombastic. Hough’s freshly minted reading revealed the thematic inventiveness, structural mastery, and depth of passion at the heart of Liszt’s canvas. The initial statement of the principal motif was emphatic and decisive. Hand crossings and knuckle-busting octaves were flawlessly executed. His fiery rendition was tempered by restraint, with the quiet interludes allowing a poetic touch. While generating high musical drama, textures were consistently clear.

In introducing his own Sonatina Nostalgica, Hough said he was influenced by composers like Frank Bridge and John Ireland. The brief score’s first two sections – “The Road to Danebank” and “The Bridge by the Dam” – suggested their pastoral tones with an impressionistic overlay. The pianist’s vigorous attack and fleet figurations in “A Gathering at the Cross” emerged more virtuosic.

Hough’s Chopin has always resounded in a highly personal manner. Not for him, the elegant Chopin of the salon. His performance of Piano Sonata No. 3 was sweeping, broadly scaled, and throbbing with tension. In the Scherzo, his hands glided across the keyboard, the thematic threads rising in long-limbed spans. He allowed the Largo’s graceful themes to flow organically, without overly emphatic exaggeration. Hough took a big-boned approach to the Presto non tanto finale, played with propulsive energy at a lightning clip.

A standing ovation and cheers repeatedly brought Hough back to the stage, and he offered two contrasting encores. Chopin’s Nocturne in F-sharp major (Op. 15, no. 2) was marked by tonal allure and perfectly etched filigree. Hough’s own set of variations on the song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from the film Mary Poppins was a wild, Lisztian ride with wit and pyrotechnics galore. The entire evening displayed one of the concert scene’s great artists at the peak of his powers.