Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Click cover art to view larger version
Track(s) taken from CDA67267

Two Poems in Homage to Fauré

composer

Stephen Hough (piano)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: January 2001
Henry Wood Hall, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Mike Hatch
Release date: March 2002
Total duration: 7 minutes 43 seconds

Cover artwork: Days Gone By (2001) by Anthony Mastromatteo (b?)
Private Collection
 

Reviews

‘Another winner from the ever-imaginative Stephen Hough. In all these pieces Hough's magic is presented in full, clear Hyperion sound’ (Gramophone)

‘Powerful, sympathetic and beautifully recorded, and his fans everywhere will be thrilled’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Exquisite presentation … [Hough] is a pianist of such refinement and impeccable technique that he makes everything he plays compellingly interesting … [the Leighton Studies] have a clear awareness of other 20th -century musical styles, including jazz, and there is an element of virtuosity that Hough, of course, delivers brilliantly’ (The Guardian)

‘Hough's performances are magical – scintillating, refined, sensuous in the smaller works, commanding and powerful in Rawsthorne and Leighton. I hope this superb pianist records many more recitals of British music’ (American Record Guide)

‘Hough’s pianism is a constant source of wonder – every chord and phrase perfectly judged’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘These performances can be regarded as definitive … a CD of revealing personal choices of a master pianist, and one that reveals yet more very worthy British music … strongly recommended’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘[Hough] plays with an astonishing command, great insight and some terrific finesse, in a performance that ranges from the elegant and sensitive to the vigorous and exhilarating’ (Hi-Fi News)

‘I’ve long admired the unfailingly beautiful, carefully honed, paradoxically rich but lean textures and sonorities Stephen Hough cultivates … a style in which patient, sustained utterance came to seem immediate, fervent and idealistic  … Crystal-sharp sound and superb performances; transcendental technique in the service of music that at least sets itself transcendental goals’ (Pianist)

‘Hough plays [Leighton] superbly, with marvellous tonal control in the rugged and spiky passages and also in the quiet harmonic episodes that glow with fierce intensity … enjoyable, excellently performed and beautifully engineered CD’ (International Piano)

‘Hough is one of world’s grandest piano performers, imaginative, graceful, powerful, able to dazzle with both his technique and his mind … a haunting and complex collection’ (Philadelphia Post)

‘This is a treat for lovers of the piano … fascinating stuff’ (Manchester Evening News)

‘Scrupulous, full … bodied, and technically impeccable performances … He revels in the sensuous harmonic felicities that color Stephen Reynolds' pastiches and makes an easy task of York Bowen’s fustian textures’ (Classics Today)
Stephen Reynolds has been heard as pianist and composer in concerts and broadcasts across Europe and the United States. He is currently on the faculty of his alma mater, the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where both Rawsthorne and myself studied. The two sets of pieces on this record were originally written in the 1980s as a diversion from the more serious and experimental music he was writing at the time. He talks of wanting to invade and absorb the sound-world of two of his favourite composers, and to use their musical language to create works of his own. The Delius-inspired pieces are especially welcome since that composer wrote very little for the piano. In both of the sets a longer, more substantial piece is prefaced by a shorter one in a related key.

from notes by Stephen Hough © 2002

Stephen Reynolds s’est produit comme pianiste et compositeur en concerts ou lors d’enregistrements partout en Europe et aux Etats-Unis. Il fait actuellement partie de la faculté de son alma mater, le Royal Northern College of Music, à Manchester où Rawsthorne et moi-même avons étudié. Les deux pièces présentes sur cet enregistrement furent initialement écrites dans les années 1980 afin de se divertir de la musique plus sérieuse et expérimentale qu’il composait à l’époque. Reynolds parle de son désir d’envahir et d’absorber l’univers sonore de deux de ses compositeurs préférés et de se servir de leur langue musicale pour créer une œuvre de son cru. Les pièces inspirées par Delius sont particulièrement bienvenues puisque ce compositeur n’écrivit que très peu pour le piano. Dans les deux diptyques, une pièce plus substantielle est préfacée par une page plus courte au ton relatif.

extrait des notes rédigées par Stephen Hough © 2002
Français: Isabelle Battioni

Stephen Reynolds ist als Komponist und Pianist in Konzerten und Rundfunksendungen in ganz Europa und den USA zu hören gewesen. Gegenwärtig gehört er dem Lehrkörper seiner Alma mater an, dem Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, wo sowohl Rawsthorne als auch ich studiert haben. Die beiden hier eingespielten Stückfolgen entstanden in den 1980er Jahren als Ablenkung von der ernsteren und experimentelleren Musik, die er seinerzeit schrieb. Er spricht davon, in die Klangwelt zweier seiner Lieblingskomponisten eindringen und sie in sich aufnehmen zu wollen, um ihre Musiksprache zum Schaffen eigener Werke zu nutzen. Die von Delius inspirierten Stücke sind besonders willkommen, da dieser Komponist nur wenige Werke für Klavier schrieb. In beiden Stückfolgen geht einem längeren, substantielleren Stück ein kürzeres in einer verwandten Tonart voraus.

aus dem Begleittext von Stephen Hough © 2002
Deutsch: Anne Steeb/Bernd Müller

Other albums featuring this work

The Stephen Hough Piano Collection
HOUGH1Super-budget price sampler
Waiting for content to load...
Waiting for content to load...