Don’t think for a moment that the subtitle of Stephen Hough’s Piano Concerto, The World of Yesterday, means that he’s writing a work in the style of the great Romantic composer-pianists of the past. Yes, there are shades of Korngold and Prokofiev, nods to Cyril Scott and Arnold Bax, a little hint of Bill Evans, plus Ravel’s Left-Hand Concerto in solo outbursts (played by both hands) in the first-movement cadenza. But the opening Prelude’s long imitative lines that quickly gather petulant steam sound Romantic through a 21st-century lens, meaning that they sound like Stephen Hough. The ghost of that genius orchestrator Robert Farnon hovers benignly over the sumptuous string-writing in the second-movement Waltz theme, while the decorative piano and woodwind filigree throughout the ensuing variations gradually builds up into dizzying cascades, as if the musicians had been transported from the recording studio to a water park. The Tarantella appassionata finale abounds in rhythmic displacements and off-beat accents that keep the listener guessing, plus excitingly rapid concertante-like interplay. My only quibble is that the beautifully lyrical trumpet theme is sometimes undermined by sequences of thick and busy orchestration, where leaner support might have been more effective. Still, this concerto proves not only an ideal vehicle for Hough’s protean pianism (not to mention exemplary support from Mark Elder and the Hallé), but a challenging yet entertaining proposition for other pianists.

The succinct Sonatina nostalgica follows in the tradition of the British Romantics, where Hough serves up a smorgasbord of harmonic riches that manages to avoid being cloyingly calorific. While I appreciate the harmonic and thematic unity linking the Partita’s opening Overture and closing Toccata, I find the inner movements less formulaic and more creatively engaging. Its Capriccio is a delightfully lithe study dominated by fourths and fifths, while the first Canción y Danza contains some of Hough’s most movingly introspective music. I would wager that Hough plays all of this music to the composer’s satisfaction. 

This review originally appeared in the SPRING 2025 issue of International Piano