Australia Premiere Of Stephen Hough's Third...
Event Date: 18/04/2016, 07:00 pm
Stephen Hough is returning to Australian for his fourth Musica Viva Tour
Over the course of his career, Stephen Hough has distinguished himself as a true polymath, not only securing a reputation as a uniquely insightful concert pianist, but also as a writer and composer. His artistic activities extend to painting, and he is a noted connoisseur of fine tea, perfume and hats.
Hough’s upcoming recital program lightly references some of these extra-musical things.
Hough will open his Australian program with one of Schubert’s late sonatas, a ‘sonata of sighs’, thought to have been written just after the diagnosis of what was to be his final illness.
“In the Schubert there almost isn’t any light at all,” says Hough. “Even when it goes into the major, it’s more heartbreaking than it is in the minor – that’s of course something that Schubert does really well.”
Hough describes the whole of the first half as a big progression from darkness to light and continues, “In the Franck Prelude, Chorale and Fugue there is this incredible, deep-suffering piece that, at the end, has this amazing opening-out. So you really do come out of the darkness.”
Following the Schubert and Franck is Hough’s latest piano work, the Sonata No. 3, ‘Trinitas’, which will make its Australian premiere on this tour.
In the new sonata, commissioned jointly by the Catholic magazine The Tablet and the Barbician Centre, Hough – whose Catholic faith is a driving force in his creativity – has been inspired by the symbolism of the number three and what he sees as the parallel dogmas of the Trinity in the church and of 12-tone serialism in music.
NOTE : winning tickets can be collected from the venue on the day of their performance, from the Guest Ticket Desk in the entry foyer of City Recital Hall, from one hour prior to the performance.
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City Recital Hall, Angel Place,
Sydney New South Wales,2000
City Recital Hall, Angel Place,
Sydney New South Wales,2000