Liszt & Grieg: Piano Concertos

A concerto album from Stephen Hough is always a significant event. For this new recording Stephen travelled to Bergen—Grieg’s home town—to join forces with Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in performances of Grieg and Liszt that are set to become landmark recordings of all three concertos.

Grieg’s A minor Piano Concerto, with its plethora of great tunes, is one of the most popular of all Romantic works, while Liszt’s two highly original concertos present unique challenges to both pianist and orchestra. These performances are exciting, magisterial and highly coloured, with breathtaking virtuosity harnessed to poetic refinement and finesse—hallmarks of Stephen’s playing that have already helped his concerto recordings to win two Gramophone ‘Record of the Year’ accolades.

Stephen Hough and Andrew Litton continue the astonishing success of their collaboration in Rachmaninov’s concertos, Hyperion’s fastest-selling recording. The Bergen players provide freshly idiomatic support in the Grieg and revel in the sumptuous scoring of the Liszt. The results are thrilling, and this deserves a place in any music lover’s collection, no matter how familiar the music.

Released to coincide with the twin anniversaries of Liszt’s birth (200 years ago) and Stephen’s own 50th birthday (in November), this recording is an apt celebration of both.

CDA67824  68 minutes 43 seconds
GRAMOPHONE CHOICE
THE SUNDAY TIMES CLASSICAL CD OF THE WEEK
INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW 'OUTSTANDING' AWARD
INTERNATIONAL PIANO CHOICE
‘Performances which ideally blend poetry and virtuosity … the Bergen Philharmonic, a fast-rising orchestra under their music director Andrew Litton, are excellent partners. This is a self-recomme ...
‘Stephen Hough continues to bemuse as a pianist so free from difficulty that he can soar, inflect and alter the course of a musical argument at the drop of a hat … he expresses a personality all ...
‘There are so many recordings of all three of these works that it's fair to ask: can we really be doing with any more? Yes, if they're in this kind of intriguing and appealing class … Hough's sci ...