Last night pianist Stephen Hough (“Sir” now included on the program sheet) returned to Herbst Theatre for another program presented by San Francisco Performances (SFP). This follows up on last March, when he served as “guest artist” in a recital by the Esmé Quartet. The selection was Johannes Brahms’ Opus 34 piano quintet in F minor. For his return, now as a soloist, he remained in the nineteenth century, performing full-length sonatas by two of Brahms’ predecessors. In “order of appearance” these were Franz Liszt prior to the intermission and Frédéric Chopin at the conclusion.
A representative example of Stephen Hough’s approach to expressiveness (photograph by Hiroyuki Ito, courtesy of SFP)
Those familiar with the repertoire know that both of these selections are major undertaking. Sadly, Hough failed to provide a convincing account of either of them. Mind you, Liszt’s only piano sonata poses no end of challenges to even the most qualified performer, particularly if its three “movements” (if there be such) are performed without interruption. To be fair, Liszt commanded a broad spectrum of expressiveness in just about everything he composed; but sustaining all of that expressiveness over the course of half an hour is far from a walk in the park. To continue that metaphor, rising to that challenge requires endowing the attentive listener with some sense of “journey.” Hough never rose to that challenge, leaving the listener to contend with little more than one outburst after another.
The Chopin selection, on the other hand, was his Opus 58, the last of his three piano sonatas. This was composed in 1844 (the first having been composed in 1828). From a structural point of view, that “sense of journey” is much better defined, even if there is no shortage of diverting embellishments. However, in the context of the first half of the program, Hough played his way through that journey as if he were channeling Liszt again. It was as if he sought to drown the audience in notes just to make sure they came away feeling they got their money’s worth!
Mind you, there was other evidence of Hough’s notes-as-currency approach to music. The intermission was followed by his own “Sonatina Nostalgica. This was inspired by the village of Lymm in Cheshire, England; and the music serves as a “tour guide” for a visitor to that village. This was clearly a modest setting, but the overflow of notes in Hough’s score subjected that village to a tempest worthy of William Shakespeare’s imagination.
To be fair, however, listeners were warned of that plethora of notes as soon as the light’s dimmed. He began with three short pieces by Cécile Chaminade: “Automne,” “Autre fois” (another time), and the pastoral “Les sylvains.” Each of these was conceived with sensitive rhetoric of brevity, but it seemed as if Hough’s only concern was of how many notes he could pack into each of these brief intervals of time.
Things were a bit more tolerable in his first encore, the third “Warum?” (why) movement in Robert Schumann’s Opus 12 Fantasiestücke (fantasy pieces). This was followed by (presumably) Hough’s own fantasia take on the song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” composed by the Sherman brothers (Richard M. and Robert B.) for the Walt Disney movie Mary Poppins. Sadly, it would have taken more than “a spoonful of sugar” to make Hough’s take on Disney to go down smoothly!
Those who enjoy the pleasures of piano music, whether playing it or listening to it, deserved better.
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