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Track(s) taken from CDA67267

The Dew Fairy

composer
1919

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: 2 minutes 43 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)
Frank Bridge, a committed pacifist, was profoundly affected by World War I, and as a result his earlier, pastoral style changed into a more serious, thorny and strikingly personal language. These two miniatures are from the same post-war years as the ambitious, darkly passionate piano sonata, but they appear to be a throwback to his earlier style. However, their very fragility seems to me to separate them from mere salon pieces, as if they call to mind a lost world of innocence and tranquility. Heart’s Ease also exists in an arrangement by the composer for violin and piano.

from notes by Stephen Hough © 2002

Vigoureusement engagé pour la cause pacifiste, Frank Bridge fut profondément affecté par la Première Guerre mondiale. Une des conséquences directes se situa au niveau stylistique avec son éloignement de la pastorale vers un langage hautement personnel, plus sérieux, plus épineux. Les deux miniatures retenues ici datent des mêmes années d’après-guerre que l’ambitieuse Sonate pour piano d’une passion sombre. Elles semblent pourtant se tourner vers son style antérieur. J’ai l’impression que leur fragilité à fleur de peau les éloignent cependant des simples pièces de salon, comme si elles rappelaient un univers perdu d’innocence et de tranquillité. La facilité du cœur existe également dans un arrangement pour violon et piano réalisé par le compositeur.

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

Als überzeugter Pazifist war Frank Bridge vom Ersten Weltkrieg zutiefst betroffen, und daraus ergab sich, daß sein ehedem pastoraler Stil sich zu einer ernsteren, eher dornigen und auffallend persönlichen Ausdrucksform wandelte. Die beiden hier vorliegenden Miniaturen stammen aus den gleichen Nachkriegsjahren wie die anspruchsvolle, düster leidenschaftliche Klaviersonate, auch wenn sie fast wie eine Rückbesinnung auf seinen frühen Stil wirken. Doch scheint mir gerade ihre Zartheit sie von bloßen Salonstücken abzuheben, als wollten sie eine verlorene Welt voll Unschuld und Frieden heraufbeschwören. Heart’s Ease hat der Komponist auch in einer Fassung für Violine und Klavier arrangiert.

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

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