STEPHEN HOUGH
1st PRIZE WINNER, 1983 NAUMBURG INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION
SIDE 1
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 82
1. Allegro moderato
2. Allegretto
3. Tempo di valzer lentissimo
4. Vivace
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
5.Sonata No. 9, Op. 68 ("Messe noire")
Sergey Liapunov (1859-1924)
12 Études d'exécution transcendante, Op. 11
6. Etude in G Major, Op. 11, No. 11 ("Ronde des sylphes")
7. Etude in F-sharp Major, Op. 11, No. 1 ("Berceuse'")
8. Etude in B Minor, Op. 11, No. 10 ("Lesghinka")
Stephen Hough, Piano
One of music's true originals, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) dared to shake his fist at Soviet officialdom. His first piano Sonata, op. 1 (1909) hardly extends the language of Russia's ancien régime (Glazunov, Arensky, Liadov, etc. ); but within a remarkably short time he insisted on a more muscular tradition of speech, shorn of easy sentiment and confidently throwing all discretion to the wind. Reaction was swift and unforgiving. The composer who wrote such music, who dismissed Mozart, who spoke of the old wornout arpeggio- ridden techniques, and who felt that the time had come "to do quite well without Chopin," was roundly attacked. A belligerent and mischievous leftist from the start, Prokofiev -- a porcupine personality: all spines and quills -- was quickly established as Russia's most brilliant bad boy.
Although Prokofiev's anti-romanticism is evident in the sixth, seventh, and eighth of his nine piano Sonatas, those three works also represent a considerable advance beyond such early iconoclasm and show him at the zenith of his pianistic art, their notorious style mécanique notwithstanding. All three were sketched simultaneously in 1939, forming a trilogy known as the "War Sonatas." But only the sixth was completed quickly, the first broadcast and public performances being given by the composer
and Sviatoslav Richter respectively in 1940 and 1942.
Among the most powerful of all modern sonatas the sixth contains a first movement with a storming narrative which opposes and combines a notably and dissonant motive with a spare and melancholy subordinate theme. The violent yoking together of such contrasted material results in a fast and furious development where glissandi and clusters of notes played con pugno (with the fist -- to frighten the traditionalists) contribute to the general air of ferocity. The movement concludes with a defiant reference to the first subject; and throughout, Prokofiev's lean and hungry bravura, his way, for example, of turning double notes to percussive rather than mellifluous advantage, breathes forth the very spirit of revolution. The Allegretto's dance-like measures are elaborated with flashing quintuplets, and the music's constrained poetry surfaces briefly in a central meno mosso before a final parody of the rhythm resolves in a comically false cadence.
The third movement is a slow waltz, its sentiment qualified by an unusual richness of expression, but the final Vivace returns us to Prokofiev's most motoric, clean-cut, and wintry style. This commences with all the
insistence of a tribal drumbeat; even a more genial idea or a nostalgic transformation of the first movement's opening war cry cannot curb such exuberance. In the closing pages Prokofiev's "scherzoness" -- his selfconfessed playfulness -- turns the music's general outline topsy turvy while maintaining a hard diamond-like clarity.
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) was a precocious genius whose early waltzes, mazurkas, preludes, nocturnes, etc. declare their Chopinesque bias. Scriabin's individuality is, however, paramount and his early sophistication is greatly extended in other later examples of these genres and most of all in his 10 piano Sonatas. The transitions from, say the third to the fourth, the fifth to the sixth, and the eighth to the ninth Sonatas, are steep and dramatic and show a gradual evolution of Scriabin's ideal: an ecstatic single-movement composition. Wagner's in fluence proclaims itself in the way ideas or leit-motives grow and multiply like crystals, each facet dividing into freeranging but symmetrical patterns. Scriabin's so-called mystic chord, which dominates his later works, has been admirably defined as "a few select progressions from the outer reaches of romantic tonality," usually woven around short gnomic phrases.
The ninth Sonata (1912-13), the "Black Mass" (the seventh Sonata is Scriabin's "White Mass"), shows this very idiosyncratic procedure at its most tenacious and elaborate. And with instructions such as legendaire and murmuré to define the two principal ideas of his fluent and scintillating structure, Scriabin makes clear his desire to compress the arguments of a more classic tradition and also to bid farewell to the conventional key-based writing of compatriots such as Medtner or Rachmaninoff. Such an approach, initially described as incontinent rhapsodizing, may reflect Scriabin's preoccupation with the occult and supernatural, but it also confirms his need to create a mosaic-like intricacy and maximum activity within an often static harmonic limbo. Frenzied and lyrical, like so much fire and ice, the ninth Sonata is among Scriabin's most dark and rarefied compositions.
Finally, as a garland of encores, Stephen Hough plays three of Sergey Liapunov's 12 Transcendental Etudes, op. 11. Although Liapunov (1859-1924) felt unable too escape the shadows of both Liszt and Balakirev he turned such influence to picturesque and evocative advantage. His significantly named Transcendental Etudes(1897-1905) complete
the key sequence begun by Liszt in his studies of the same name and are dedicated to Liszt's memory. Nonetheless, their decorative ardor and exuberance are both individual and indelibly Russian.
All lovers of Russian romanticism will warm to Liapunov's gentle elaboration of his principal idea in his "Berceuse" (no. 1 in F-sharp minor), its meandering progression briefly interrupted by cadenzas like fleeting bursts of sunshine. They will also thrill to the equestrian and luxuriant whirlwind of "Lesghinka" (no. 10 in B minor). A sibling of Balakirev's Islamey, "Lesghinka" -- a violent dance of the Mohammedan tribe -- is understandably the most familiar of the set.
The 11th Study, the "Ronde des sylphes" in G major, might well have shared such popularity were its difficulties less exorbitant. Like Liszt's "Feux follets." which it closely resembles, this vertiginous dance challenges the pianist to achieve and maintain the ultimate degree of lightness and dexterity within an alarmingly strenuous and acrobatic context. Like Liszt's celebrated Etude, this superficially benign Allegretto fails to disguise the rapidity of its momentum or the difficulty of increasingly awkward skips and double notes. Again, like Liszt, Liapunov could not resist a touch of drama or rhetoric
within this elfin setting, and the central uproar reminds us that Liapunov's sprites, in the truest Russian tradition, can be violent as well as playful, malignant as well as seductive. All such storm and stress is, however, banished in the conclusion where, with a final patter of tiny feet and a touch of dissonance, Liapunov's fragile, glistening, and, for the pianist transcendentally tricky vision vanishes abruptly.
Bryce Morrison, 1985
Stephen
Hough, winner of the 1983 Naumburg International Piano Competition, is already well known in Europe for his recitals in Great Britain and Germany as well as for his performances with such orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony, Philharmonic Orchestra,. and Halle Orchestra. His Naumburg Award resulted in numerous United States engagements, among them his highly acclaimed New York recital debut in February 1984 at Alice Tully Hall. In the summer of 1984, Mr. Hough appeared with the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival and the Detroit Symphony at Meadowbrook. His engagements in this country in the 198485 season included recitals in Boston, Pasadena, and Vancouver, performances with the Baltimore Symphony as well as a Carnegie Hall appearance with the American Symphony, a return to Ravinia for
performances of the Rachmaninoff Piano
Concerto no. 1 with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony, and an appearance at the Aspen Music Festival with the Festival Orchestra.
Highlighting Stephen Hough's current schedule was his debut at the London Proms concerts. In the United States he joined Juilliard String Quartet violinist Robert Mann for the complete cycle of Beethoven Violin Sonatas in Boston, at Ravinia, and in New York at the 92nd Street Y. In January of this year he appeared as soloist with the Singapore and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, and in the summer he will return to Ravinia and also perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Auditorium.
Stephen Hough studied with Gordon Green and Derrick Wyndham at the Royal Northern College and with Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School.
The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation continues in the pursuit of ideals set out by Walter Naumburg. His desire to assist the young gifted musician has made possible a long-standing program of competitions and awards in solo and chamber music performance, recordings, and conducting. It was Mr. Naumburg's firm belief that such competitions were not only for the benefit of new stars, but very much for those talented young artists who would become prime movers in the development of the highest standards of musical excellence.
Stephen Hough plays a Steinway plano. Produced by Gregory K. Squires
Mastering: Bill Kipper, Masterdisk Corp.
Cover Design: Elizabeth Parry
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 85-743235
Amreco, Inc., 1986
© Musicmasters 1986
