Hough unveils his dramatic new quintet for Chamber Music Society
Sir Stephen Hough brought a sense of emotional equilibrium with the symmetry of his recital at David Geffen Hall Sunday evening for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He balanced intimate, transfixing performances of works by Chopin and Cécile Chaminade with a bold, visceral reading of Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, which was only surpassed by the drama and excitement of his own Piano Quintet, heard in its world premiere.
Hough began with three of Chopin’ most popular pieces for solo piano, the Nocturnes in E-flat major and F-sharp minor, as well as the Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat major. The intensity of Hough’s playing and his acute focus on the music commands attention. Even in a such a large hall, intimacy, as well as total silence, prevailed.
There is no guesswork involved in deciphering Hough’s approach to the Nocturnes, as he has written about it extensively. He aspires to play Chopin’s melodies in the same manner as a singer would spin a Bellini aria, with the focus on long musical lines and subtle shifts of dynamics and color to convey emotion. The Nocturne in E-flat major emerged as an expression of ecstasy, while the drama of the Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat was fueled by the pianist’s impeccable technique and virtuosity. Even in the frenzied finale, as Hough ripped off arpeggios with dazzling finesse and bravura, the prevailing sense of a personal connection between pianist and listener remained constant.
Hough’s Piano Quintet (“Les noces Rouges”) was commissioned by CMS and received its debut at this concert. His inspiration came from an episode in Willa Cather’s My Antonia, her novel of the hardships faced by 19th-century pioneers on the Nebraska prairie. Pavel and Peter, two Russian brothers, are peripheral characters in the novel, but have a harrowing tale to tell from their past. It is the gruesome story of two newlyweds being tossed to the wolves on a wild, wintery sleigh ride by the two ruthless, unsavory drivers.
The Viano Quartet—violinists Lucy Wang and Hao Zhou, violist Aiden Kane and cellist Tate Zawadiuk—burst on the scene after winning first prize in the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2019. The ensemble is currently quartet-in-residence at the CMS’s Bowers Program. The players pride themselves on being effective musical story tellers and they dug into Hough’s macabre tone poem with gusto.
Hough takes a cinematic approach to his musical depiction of Cather’s story. The music is atmospheric with church bells ringing out on the piano, Russian Orthodox hymn tunes woven into the score, and raucous, toe-tappers enlivening the wedding banquet. He pulls out all of the stops in the frenzied sleigh ride played at breakneck speed with shrieking glissandos in the strings and terrifying cluster chords in the piano. Church bells tolled mournfully in the piano after the newlyweds have been fed to the wolves.
There were some rapturous melodies for the strings, enriched by the depth of musical textures and colors which Hough wove into the score. Zhou and Zawadiuk got the lion’s share of them to play, although Wang and Kane also had ample expressive opportunities. The four string players also are called upon to exploit the full range from their instruments from plucking and strumming, to bowing throbbing melodies. The latter themes pulsed with passion, but were devoid of sentimentality. Hough reserved some of the most delicate, sparkling music for himself in depicting the joys and mysteries of young love.
The Piano Quintet clearly illustrates Hough’s compositional gifts for capturing mood and this premiere performance made sure impact musically and dramatically. Undoubtedly, he conceived it as one of his own musical calling cards, as he did with his Piano Concerto, “The World of Yesterday,” which was premiered earlier this year by the Utah Symphony. Whether the quintet (and the concerto) get picked up by other pianists remains to be seen, but as long as Hough is around to play it, his Piano Quintet will be enjoyed.
Hough is a champion of Cécile Chaminade, a French pianist who found equal fame as a composer, cloaking herself in the late Romantic mantle of Charles Gounod, Amboise Thomas and Camille Saint-Saëns. Her “Automne,” “Autrefois,” and “Les Sylvains,” posed no technical challenges for Hough, but did permit him to play with great sensitivity and beauty. As with the Chopin, these smaller-scaled works presaged the drama which was to come with Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.
With only a moment’s pause to wipe his brow and catch a breath, Hough began the Liszt. It was clear from the opening measures, that he would impose clarity and cohesion on the Sonata’s chromaticism and vast episodic framework. Hough’s restrained approach enabled him to release the grand passions of the music as well as the work’s most subtle expressions of mood. His virtuosity was astounding, but never an end in itself, building inexorably to the triumphant coda.
For his first encore, Hough returned to sentimental romanticism with Edward McDowell’s To a Wild Rose. The pianist returned to awe with his witty, tour-de-force arrangement of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from “Mary Poppins. The best of the many mutations of that beloved melody was when it suddenly morphed into the Flight of the Bumblebee.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center launches its Baroque Festival 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6 at Alice Tully Hall. chambermusicsociety.org
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