Stephen Hough

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(person) by asterion (3.9 mon) (print) ? (I like it!) 1 C! Fri Feb 15 2002 at 3:36:07

Stephen Hough was born in Cheshire, England, and attended the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and The Juilliard School in New York City. Hough was already a well-known talent by the age of 25, but his career was assured when he received first prize in the Naumburg International Piano Competition in 1983. Hough's virtuosity would allow him to play of the most complex pieces written for piano, yet he prefers to stay away from the standard repertoire. Instead he has tried to uncover and play more unusual and neglected works like those from Hummel, Scharwenka and Bowen. Hough also enjoys performing the music music of contemporary composers like Corigliano, Tsontakis and Liebermann.

Since winning first prize in the he has appeared with most of the major American orchestras and with a number of European orchestras under conductors including Abbado, Ashkenazy, Dohnányi, Dutoit, Gergiev, Jarvi, Levine, Rattle, Salonen, Slatkin, Tilson Thomas and Vanska, with whom he has performed at a number of festivals worldwide.

Stephen Hough has made over thirty recordings, a number of which are hard to find before he signs on with the more serious record label Hyperion. Many of them have won international prizes such as the Diapason d'Or, the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, and Gramophone Awards. In 1996, his recording of concertos by Scharwenka and Sauer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Lawrence Foster earned him the Gramophone Magazine's 'Concerto Record of the Year' as well as their overall 'Recording of the Year'. In 1997 recordings of Mendelssohn's complete works for piano and orchestra, Liebermann concertos, and Mompou's solo piano music was received with much praise and won a Diapason d'Or and Gramophone Award. The "New York Variations", chosen as Best Classical album of the Year by Time Magazine, includes the first recordings of John Corigliano's Etude Fantasy and George Tsontakis' piece "Ghost Variations." Hough also writes profusely and has provided most of the liner notes for his recordings.

As a chamber musician Hough collaborates with musicians such as Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Tabea Zimmermann and Michael Collins (not the Irish revolutionist). He has also performed with the Cleveland, Emerson and Juilliard Quartets, recording the complete sonatas of Beethoven and Brahms with the latter's former first violinist Robert Mann.

He has been honoured with the award of one of the 2001 MacArthur Fellowships. The award is given to "original and creative people of all ages and groups across a wide array of human endeavors linked together by their individual commitments to discovering and advancing knowledge and to improving society." No small feat.

Stephen Hough resides both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Recordings

Saint Saens: Complete Piano Concertos
Brahms: Sonata No. 3, Ballades
Liszt: Sonata, Ballades & Polonaises
Stephen Hough's New Piano Album Encores, Transcriptions and Miniatures
Schubert: Sonatas in A minor D784, in B flat D960, in C D613
New York Variations Works by Copland, Corigliano, Tsontakis and Weber
Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos
Liebermann: Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2
Mompou: Piano Music
Franck: Piano Music
Bowen: Piano Music
Bird Songs at Eventide: English Songs
Scharwenka/Sauer: Piano Concertos

Hough liner notes

Chopin and the Development of Piano Technique
Notes for Liszt: Sonata, Ballades & Polonaises
Berceuse for Bechstein
Notes for Schubert: Sonatas
Shura Cherkassky: An Obituary
Notes for New York Variations
Joseph Villa
Notes for Liebermann Piano Concertos
Notes for Mompou: Piano Music
Notes for Franck: Piano Music
Notes for Bowen: Piano Music
Notes for Bird Songs at Eventide

N.B. A number of hardlinks lead to a void; they are an incentive to node.

printable version
chaos

MacArthur Foundation Grant	Hough Transform	Thomas Henry Huxley	Hough
Time Magazine	time	Camille Saint-Saëns	Hyperion
John Corigliano	virtuosity	England	Cheshire

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