The light dimmed. The audience applauded. The pianist entered.
He was Stephen Hough. His unique interpretation of character pieces drew me back to listen to him again. He is a refined pianist with integration and in-depth perceptiveness.
Sitting at the bench, Hough wiped his hands and the 88 steinway keys with the blue handkerchief that he brought along. Without further ado, he tossed the rag and strummed the D minor chord that opens Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
Looking at the program, this is a modified version by the great piano teacher, Alfred Cortot and Hough himself. To my ears, this is a very romantic version of Baroque music with somewhat steady pulse/beat. Dramatic momentum built up gradually everytime the theme came back in the Fugue. Pedal was used to create bigger and broader sound in the passages of running notes and some lower range chords in the Toccata. I like the toccata ever since Prodigy violinist Venessa Mae performed it on her electronic violin. It has stucked in my head since then.
The abrupt and dramatic ending of the Toccata contrast with the very soft beginning of the Fugue. Coincidentally, my morning clock alarm that I set in my blackberry is the midi version of the same fugue. Now what I got to hear from Hough's hands was the romantized and pedalled version of Fugue. The entrance of the themes at different range with carefully shaped phrase lines at different dynamic created the engaging effect of the polyphony layers. The Fugue is originally played on an organ which sounds much noisier and quite monotonous. This modified Fugue for piano makes the most of the piano pedal. Also, this piece was an intelligent choice for Hough to explore the acoustic space of the Carnegie Hall with the warm-up like music structure and high intensity at the end of the piece .
GABRIEL FAURE'S NOCTURNE NO. 6 IN D-FLAT MAJOR, IMPROMPTU NO. 5 IN F-SHARP, BARCAROLLE NO. 5 IN F-SHARP MAJOR.
Hough caught his breath in these soft and light pieces. He is in fact a master of such pieces. I remembered borrowing Hough's CD recording from Dr Mohr when I was in college. If I was not told that Hough was the pianist, I would mistake that recording as a performance by a sensitive, delicate, elegant, and stylish female pianist. I remember asking my studio professor a startling question, "Is he gay?"
However, I think it is good to be more delicate, sensitive, elegant, and classier than a female for a pianist. These small pieces by Faure were all wonderful and pleasing under Hough's fingers.
Hough poses very skillfull use of pedal and creative use of concert hall space to echo the sound of piano. He can create a soft and clear sound that fills up the space in several ways. It amuses me. It is the reason that some pianists are good at playing live. And the reason that people go to piano concert instead of listening to CDs.
CESAR FRANK'S PRELUDE, CHORALE, AND FUGUE.
I've listened to this piece played by my college peer Susan Haller in her senior recital. There is a special part of the piece that I love- the part where the pianist "swept" a group of chords over the keys and sing the theme. I enjoyed listening to this piece by Hough. However, a very beautiful Asian girl who wore a tight red shirt and really low cut tight jeans sitting at my left front kept itching her head and her underarms. She is already distractively beautiful and sexy. And yet she kept scratching all over her body like a restless monkey and blocked my sight of Hough. Also to the front right, a bald head who got high listening to the prelude part and swang his bald head to the rhythm. Then when the piece came to the softer session, I vaguely heard the snore of a guy sitting at the right end of my row. (OH MY GOD.) Then the whispers and laughter of two French ladies sitting beside me about the sleeping guy. Maybe, he had a long day before coming to the concert just like me. Hough's performing style is very sentimental, elegant, comforting, and he never "bang" the piano (to wake up the guy). I didn't fall asleep though. I knew why he visited his dreamland. With the accompaniment of soothing music, he simply relaxed.
In the intermission, Hough's tuner came to stage to tune the Steinway. He did the same thing that Hough did before he started playing anything-wiped the piano keys. Maybe the piano in carnegie hall is very dirty. Maybe Hough has very sweaty hands. But the tuner seemed to tune the higher ranges according to Hough's certain specific request.
AARON COPLAN'S PIANO VARIATIONS
After intermission, Aaron Copland's Piano Variations were played. I like the theme and certain variations. I am not sure whether this piece is supposed to sound a little less exciting or Hough was getting a little tired. Somehow I felt that my friend Susan Haller can play this better. Hough sounded a wee bit too careful and this piece does not resemble his original temperament. However, his careful tone colors revealed his brilliant interpretation of the variation set.
CHOPIN NOCTURNE AND SONATA
The piece ended fast and Hough resolved all the dissonances lingering in the air with a simple and lyrical Nocturne by Chopin in B. The nocturne cleansed the muddy, conflicted mood hanging after Copland's Variations.
I remember first attending Hough's recital years ago in Appleton, Wisconson. At that time, he performed all the Chopin's Ballades in the second half of his recital. It was so breathtaking and it broke me into tears. So, I think he was back to his game when he played Chopin. But this time he did not make me weep. The final piece listed in the program yesterday night was Chopin's sonata no. 3. I enjoyed listening to the 3rd and the 4th movements where the long lyrical movement in "largo" was taken over by the stormy, energetic and bravura 4th movement in "presto, ma non tanto" in a dramatic transition.
Due to the non-stopping applaud, Hough came back to the stage and rewarded the audience with some musical "desserts"-Albeniz's short pieces with spanish flavor and Claude Debussy's prelude- The Girl With the Flaxen Hair. They were all sweet, pleasing, and short.
LESS IS MORE
In general, Hough has a preference of quality over quantity. His program was a little bit shorter compared to other pianists who performed a marathon of athletic program in Carnegie Hall. Also contrast to them, Hough performed his program extremely well. Manufact, "extremely well" is an understatement. He made the audience go back home with a mind being calmed, and a soul being nourished and ears being tuned. He is a refined pianist, a great artist, and a generous soul.
