Stephen Hough's Spanish Album

STEPHEN HOUGH'S SPANISH ALBUM

STEPHEN HOUGH PLAYS :

Longas, Soler, Granados, Albeniz, Mompou, Hough, Scharwenka, et al

Federico Longas, Antonio Soler, Enrique Granados, Isaac Albeniz, Federico Mompou, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Franz Xaver Scharwenka, Walter Niemann, Stephen Hough

Stephen Hough, piano

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BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE DISC OF THE MONTH

CLASSIC FM BEST INSTRUMENTAL CD OF 2006

MAIL ON SUNDAY BEST INSTRUMENTAL CD OF 2006

'I cannot imagine many piano lovers failing to fall for this delectable and all-too-brief collection of impressions, portraits and postcards. If you are not drawn to the imaginative programme of the familiar, the brand new and the entirely unknown, then the elegant, eloquent playing of this master pianist will surely seduce you ... We are treated to some of the loveliest pianissimos and and delicate shadings you'll hear, familiar from Hough's earlier Piano Albums and similar in his complete empathy with this kind of repertoire...Hough's own On Falla has an authentic ring that should provide him with a blistering encore for years to come...The piano sound (Andrew Keener and Simon Eadon) is as you would expect from Hyperion's dream team'

(Gramophone)

'Stephen Hough is among the most intellectual of contemporary pianists; but he's also among the most playful and tonally poetic keyboard artists... The unashamedly romantic reading of the Soler Sonata that opens the programme sets up the perspective: extremely flexible tempos, all-embracing colours, an exceptional range of articulation, and a subtle observation of polyphony that leads to characterized conversations among the music's competing voices... Hough's own On Falla brings the collection to a whimsically brilliant close... An ear-caressing release.'

(International Record Review)

'Hough again has a more intimate stance than many pianists, quietly brilliant in the cross-cutting between musical ideas. Everything is wonderfully fresh and nothing is laboured - it's a superb and surprising recital'

(BBC Music Magazine)

'A ravishing display of light-fingered, insouciant virtuosity'

(Classic FM Magazine)

'The sparkle and sensitivity of Stephen Hough's playing is lavished on a typically imaginative cross-section of music inspired by Spain...The perfect Christmas present'

(The Times)

'Hough is one of Britian's best-kept cultural secrets; a pianist of such sophistication he will, I suspect, by the end of his career be able to be mentioned in the same breath as the few great British pianists of the past, such as Clifford Curzon and Solomon. Hough is a connoisseur, not merely a virtuoso. The 17 pieces on this beautifully recorded CD have all been carefully chosen to reflect the achievements of the Spanish nationalist school of Albeniz and Granados, the finest French exponents of the Spanish style, Ravel and Debussy, and a splendidly evocative encore, On Falla, by Hough himself. Irresistible'

(Mail on Sunday)

'Like a good book that makes you laugh out loud and want to read it again, a CD of piano solos that brings a smile of appreciation to your lips is a great find. Pianist Stephen Hough brings his sublime musicality to this marvellous collection of Spanish piano works'

(Glasgow Herald)

'Stephen Hough's delicious Spanish Album, a real connoisseur's choice'

(Mail on Sunday)

'Everything on this rewarding disc suggests that Hough intuitively feels the idiom in his bones'

(Pianist Magazine)

'This is truly one of the loveliest piano compilations around and deserves every recommendation'

(Classical.net)

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Posted by APotter