59.00 PLN

CD:

Nr kat.: CDA67824
Label  : Hyperion

awards: • Gramophone Editors Choice - January 2012 • BBC Radio 3 Disc of the Week - December 2011 • MDT Best Seller - November 2011 'There are so many recordings of all three of these works that it's fair to ask: can we really be doing with any more? Yes, if they're in this kind of intriguing and appealing class … Hough's scintillating expertise is complemented by Andrew Litton and the orchestra's engaging and live-wire support … [Grieg] It's a credit both to them and to the music itself that it sounds so fresh here, while Hough finds new loveliness in it without ever descending into point-making. A pleasing and … thought-provoking release' (BBC Music Magazine) 'Stephen Hough continues to bemuse as a pianist so free from difficulty that he can soar, inflect and alter the course of a musical argument at the drop of a hat … He expresses a personality all his own, brilliantly alert to mercurial changes of mood and clearly riding on the crest of a wave of success. With technique honed to a state of diamond-like brilliance, he gives us rapier-like cadenzas and glissandos that flash like summer lightning' (Gramophone) 'Does the world really need another recording of the Grieg Piano Concerto? The answer has to be an emphatic yes when the soloist is the barnstorming Stephen Hough, a pianist with the fascinating ability to take a venerable work, strip it of its patina and present it as though for the very first time … Highly recommended' (The Observer) 'Time and again, Hough's traversals of familiar works are played with such insight, probity and sage musical understanding that we feel almost as if we are hearing them for the first time … [Grieg] Each phrase is shaped with the utmost refinement within an exquisitely fluid tempo that is perfectly matched by Litton and his musicians … This full-blown, go-for-broke, unapologetically Romantic approach yields one of the most intensely dynamic, emotionally authentic readings of this score we are likely to hear for some time … Stephen Hough's steady ascent to the summit of his profession exhibits equally supreme mastery of his instrument and the deep humanity from which it has flowered' (International Record Review) 'One of the Liszt bicentenary's prime releases, from Britain's greatest living magician of the keyboard' (The Sunday Times) '[Liszt 1] Hough dispels the clouds of unknowing with inventive power and technical brilliance, eloquently supported by the Bergen Philharmonic and Andrew Litton. His reading, while dramatic and unconstrained, remains essentially poetic … Litton's warm-toned orchestra deploys its most important instruments, the ears of its players, to engage with Hough's music making, magnifying the impassioned fire and lyrical intensity of the Grieg' (International Piano Magazine) 'Performances which ideally blend poetry and virtuosity … The Bergen Philharmonic, a fast-rising orchestra under their music director Andrew Litton, are excellent partners. This is a self-recommending issue' (Mail on Sunday) ************************************************************** A concerto album from Stephen Hough is always a significant event. For this new recording Stephen travelled to Bergen—Grieg’s home town—to join forces with Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in performances of Grieg and Liszt that are set to become landmark recordings of all three concertos. Grieg’s A minor Piano Concerto, with its plethora of great tunes, is one of the most popular of all Romantic works, while Liszt’s two highly original concertos present unique challenges to both pianist and orchestra. These performances are exciting, magisterial and highly coloured, with breathtaking virtuosity harnessed to poetic refinement and finesse—hallmarks of Stephen’s playing that have already helped his concerto recordings to win two Gramophone ‘Record of the Year’ accolades. Stephen Hough and Andrew Litton continue the astonishing success of their collaboration in Rachmaninov’s concertos, Hyperion’s fastest-selling recording. The Bergen players provide freshly idiomatic support in the Grieg and revel in the sumptuous scoring of the Liszt. The results are thrilling, and this deserves a place in any music lover’s collection, no matter how familiar the music. Released to coincide with the twin anniversaries of Liszt’s birth (200 years ago) and Stephen’s own 50th birthday (in November), this recording is an apt celebration of both.