Hough: Piano Concerto, Sonatina & Partita

Unlike most modern concert pianists, Stephen Hough is also a composer of note, and has steadily accumulated a catalogue of impressively individual pieces. Hough’s Piano Concerto (subtitled “The World of Yesterday”) dates from 2023, and launches in a gently Romantic vein, its unassuming opening theme gradually accruing lush orchestral plumage. Hough’s initial entry is an unaccompanied cadenza, hinting at jazz stylings and nostalgia for a golden age of lost elegance. A waltz theme, with eight glittering variations, provides the Concerto’s middle movement, which segues to a chattering, increasingly animated tarantella finale. Hough’s pianism is predictably brilliant, and the Hallé Orchestra lends incisive support under conductor Mark Elder. Hough’s Partita for solo piano (2019) is the main coupling. Here an ebullient “Overture” and a swirling “Toccata” frame three shorter inner movements, where angular dance rhythms glint and shimmy. Hough’s brief Sonatina nostalgica, evoking childhood haunts and memories, completes this richly approachable album.