Composer: Antonín Dvořák, Robert Schumann
Performer: Stephen Hough
Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Andris Nelsons
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA68099
Release: 2016
Size: 1.26 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Dvořák: Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33
01. I. Allegro agitato
02. II. Andante sostenuto
03. III. Allegro con fuoco
Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
04. I. Allegro affettuoso
05. II. Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso –
06. III. Allegro vivace
Two more rich piano concertos from the unparalleled Stephen Hough and the CBSO (they’ve already won Gramophone’s Record of the Year award twice). The eminent Andris Nelsons conducts, making his Hyperion debut. Schumann and Dvořák each wrote just one piano concerto, the latter being performed here in its fearsomely challenging original version.
Dvorák’s Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33, might be thought to be the main attraction of this Hyperion release; recordings of the earliest of Dvorák’s three concertos are not common. The work manages to be bruisingly difficult for the pianist without creating a piano part that stands out from the orchestra, a fact that Dvorák himself conceded and caused him to ask others to revise the work (it is the original version that’s played here). Pianist Stephen Hough masters the technical complexities, but does little to deal with the lengthy first movement’s diffusion and the finale’s awkward qualities. But the recording is well worth your time, for Hough delivers a superb reading of the Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, among the most recorded pieces in the entire piano concerto repertory. There are grander versions of the concerto about, but Hough’s reading, probing and sensitive, is absolutely his own. Sample abundantly in the first movement: there are no “transitional” passages here, for Hough has shaped each one to point toward something later in the music. The finale is not epic, but it is crisp and resolute, and Hough is matched at every step by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons. The sound, from the orchestra’s Birmingham Symphony Hall home base, is clear. This is a quintessentially British reading of the Schumann concerto (despite the conductor’s Latvian origins), and it’s worth a space on a shelf of 19th century concertos.