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Track(s) taken from CDA67267

Song to the Seals

composer
arranger

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: 4 minutes 3 seconds

Cover artwork: Days Gone By (2001). 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)
Granville Bantock was a conductor and educator who wrote a sizable quantity of music in various forms, much of it showing his fascination for things Eastern and Celtic. I discovered this haunting song through the tenor Robert White with whom I have played through masses of vocal repertoire after delicious bowls of pasta at his New York apartment. The printed score has the following words of explanation: ‘The refrain of this song was actually used recently on an Hebridean island by a singer who thereby attracted a quantity of seals to gather round and listen intently to the singing’.

from notes by Stephen Hough © 2002

Granville Bantock fut un chef d’orchestre et un pédagogue qui légua un imposant catalogue d’œuvres dans toutes les formes musicales et fait notable, une grande partie dévoile une fascination pour ce qui touchait aux univers oriental et celtique. J’ai découvert cette chanson lancinante à travers le ténor Robert White avec qui j’ai parcouru des pages et des pages de répertoire vocal après avoir dégusté un délicieux plat de pâtes dans son appartement new-yorkais. La partition porte en guise d’explication les mots suivants: «le refrain de cette mélodie a été récemment utilisé dans une île des Hébrides par un chanteur qui attira ainsi autour de lui de nombreux phoques lesquels écoutèrent attentivement son chant.»

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

Granville Bantock war ein Dirigent und Pädagoge, der außerdem eine ansehnliche Zahl von Kompositionen in verschiedenen Gattungen schrieb, die zum großen Teil von seiner Faszination für Fernöstliches und Keltisches zeugt. Auf dieses sehnsuchtsvolle Lied machte mich der Tenor Robert White aufmerksam, mit dem ich nach dem Verspeisen ganzer Schüsseln köstlicher Pasta in seinem New Yorker Appartement große Mengen Vokalrepertoire durchgespielt habe. Die gedruckte Partitur enthält folgende Erklärung: „Der Refrain dieses Liedes wurde jüngst tatsächlich von einem Sänger auf den Hebriden benutzt, der damit eine Anzahl von Robben anlockte, die sich um ihn scharten und seinem Gesang aufmerksam lauschten.“

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

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