Stephen Hough

Stephen Hough has been hailed as 'our foremost pianist' (The Sunday Times).

The Boston Globe calls him `simply one of the most interesting musicians around'.

His recital programmes are always ideas-focused, and today he makes an unusual pairing of German Romantic music with French musical impressionism from Debussy.

That composer's two books of Images, pieces whose imaginative textures absorb us in a series of exotic scenes, are complemented by his two best-known moonlit works, the tender Clair de Lune and the prelude La terrasse des audiences au clair de lune.

The first half then plunges into Robert Schumann's turbulent outpouring of love for his distant beloved, the pianist Clara Wieck, in the Fantasie in C.

The second half is completed by Beethoven's Sonata Op.57, the Appassionata, a tempestuous work of transcendental power.

Repertoire
Debussy: Clair de lune from Suite bergamasque; Images, Set 2
Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op.17
Interval
Debussy: La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune from Préludes, Bk.2; Images, Set 1
Beethoven: Sonata in F minor, Op.57 (Appassionata)