Program Notes, “A Solo Piano Recital,” March 28
Cécile Chaminade (1857–1944) was a groundbreaking French composer and pianist whose popularity soared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Renowned for her melodic piano pieces and songs, she was the first female composer to record her own music and became the first woman to receive the Légion d’Honneur. Her works captivated audiences across Europe and America, including royalty, and inspired the formation of around 200 Chaminade Clubs in the United States. Although her fame dwindled after World War I, her influence and contributions to music remain significant.
“Automne” was composed around 1893 as part of her Études de concert (Op. 35) and is one of Chaminade’s most popular and recorded piano pieces, showcasing her Romantic style influenced by Liszt and Chopin. The work features a lyrical, songful theme that unfolds with rich harmonic textures, intensifying to a dramatic, rhapsodic middle section before gently returning to its serene, cantabile character.
“Autrefois,” the fourth piece from Chaminade’s Pièces humoristiques, Op. 87 (1897), exudes a delightful neo-Baroque character. Its graceful, lyrical outer sections are contrasted by a lively, toccata-like middle section that playfully shifts between major and minor tonalities, enhanced by brilliant trills that add a sparkling touch.
“Les Sylvains,” Op. 60 (1892) evokes the playful and elusive nature of fauns, predating Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune by two years. Chaminade contrasts two distinct musical ideas: a solemn, lyrical theme with a gentle, low-register accompaniment, and a light, whimsical section characterized by playful, high-register melodies suggesting flute music and lively acrobatics. The piece concludes with a sparkling, mischievous flourish, emphasizing the capricious spirit of the faun.
Franz Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178
Following the tradition of scope and boldness of Beethoven’s groundbreaking piano sonatas such as the Hammerklavier, the Liszt Piano Sonata presents almost superhuman demands on the pianist in both architectural delineation and poetic ardour. It can be viewed as a beautiful tone poem for solo piano; all in one continuous movement, with an implied four-movement symphonic structure, all linked by thematic transformation of motives presented in the beginning of the piece. It is monumental! Composed in 1853, Liszt dedicated the Sonata to Robert Schumann in return to Schumann’s dedication to Liszt of his Fantasie, Op. 17 – another monumental work. Upon examining the manuscript, Schumann’s wife, Clara declared it “merely a blind noise.” The piece was premiered by one of Liszt’s students – Hans von Bülow (later his son-in-law) – eliciting many strong reactions. Because of its newness and tremendous demands on the pianist it was long before the Sonata would become a standard work in the pianist’s repertoire. Lasting around 30 minutes, today the sonata is one of the most revered and frequently-performed pieces for solo piano.
For a multi-perspective performance and a detailed personal guide to the Sonata see Sir Stephen Hough’s iPad app “The Liszt Sonata” in the app store. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-liszt-sonata/id666777399
Stephen Hough Sonatina “Nostalgica”
(Commissioned by the Chetham’s International Piano Summer School
on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Philip Fowke.)
This little sonatina, lasting under five minutes, was written for my friend (and fellow Gordon Green student) Philip Fowke in celebration of his 70th birthday. It is ‘nostalgica‘ on three levels: firstly, it was commissioned by my old school, Chetham’s; secondly, it deliberately utilises a romantic musical language of yesteryear; but most importantly it evokes literal homesickness for the places of our youth, in this case the little ‘sonatina’ village of Lymm in Cheshire.
I – The road from Danebank
Danebank was a grand country house which gave its name to today’s Dane Bank Road. Along and about this road are places resonant with memories for me, not least the nursing home where my mother lived her final years. By happy coincidence Philip Fowke’s great-grandparents, the Watkins, lived at… Danebank.
II – The bench by the Dam
Lymm Dam is the picturesque source of the village, a calm lake whose surface reflects mature trees and the handsome steeple of the parish church. I had a bench installed there commemorating my parents. Drive a few miles down the road and you’ll find the birthplace of John Ireland, whose musical shadow falls over this pastoral movement.
III – A gathering at the Cross
Lymm Cross is a monument at the heart of the village and this movement is an affectionate tribute to the countless friends and family members who have gathered for parties and dinners and carol- singing within striking distance of its crumbling sandstone structure over many years.
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The first movement is in ABA form and is made up of two contrasting but equally lyrical motives. A dotted-rhythm gesture appears in the final bar and becomes the theme of the second movement. The Finale plays with these three ideas, tossing them around in a spirit of celebration.
STEPHEN HOUGH
Frederic Chopin Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58
Chopin composed his Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58, in 1844 during his time at Nohant, the country estate of his lover George Sand. Despite his declining health and the turbulent dynamics of their relationship, the peaceful environment at Nohant fostered a burst of creativity, allowing Chopin to explore larger, more ambitious forms beyond his celebrated miniatures.
The Sonata represents a grand exploration of form and expression, balancing classical sonata structure with Romantic sensibilities. The opening Allegro maestoso presents a powerful theme with commanding octaves and chords, immediately followed by softer, lyrical material reminiscent of a nocturne. The movement weaves through a multitude of themes, alternating between grandeur and tenderness. Although the development section is sometimes criticized for its sprawling nature, the recapitulation effectively brings back the secondary theme, closing with brilliance and passion. The Scherzo in E-flat major offers a contrast of ethereal lightness and playful energy, with its rapid figurations and shimmering textures. Its middle section, in B major, evokes a nostalgic and dreamlike atmosphere before the music returns to its lively opening material.
The Largo serves as the emotional core of the sonata, unfolding like an expansive nocturne. Its gently rocking accompaniment and flowing, cantabile melody convey an otherworldly serenity, yet also carry moments of questioning and contemplation. The middle section delves deeper into introspective melancholy before returning to the haunting main theme through a magical chromatic transformation. The Finale, marked Presto non tanto, launches with thunderous chords and swiftly transitions into a whirlwind of energy, its 6/8 meter driving forward with relentless intensity. Despite its formal structure resembling a rondo, the movement’s narrative feels more like a ballad, its themes evolving and expanding with each iteration. The coda builds to a triumphant conclusion in B major, showcasing Chopin’s mastery of virtuosity and emotional depth. Though initially met with mixed reception, the sonata is now celebrated as one of Chopin’s most ambitious and powerful works for piano.
Program Notes, “Musical Mixology,” March 29
Stephen Hough String Quartet No. 1, ‘Les Six Rencontres’ (Texas premiere)
This piece was conceived after an invitation from the Takács Quartet: to write a companion work for a recording of the quartets of Ravel and Dutilleux. It was a thrilling if daunting challenge and it gave me an immediate idea as I considered these two colossi who strode across the length of the 20th century – not so much what united their musical languages but what was absent from them, not to mention the missing decades between the Ravel Quartet of 1903 and Dutilleux’s ‘Ainsi la Nuit’ from the mid-1970s.
The term ‘Les Six’, referring to the group of six French composers most prominently active around the interwar years, evokes a flavour more than a style – and it’s a flavour rarely found in the music of Ravel and Dutilleux. In Les Six it’s not so much a lack of seriousness, although seeing life through a burlesque lens is one recurring ingredient; rather it’s an aesthetic review of the world after the catastrophe of the Great War. Composers like Poulenc and Milhaud were able to discover poignance in the rough and tumble of daily human life in a way which escaped the fastidiousness of those other two composers. Stravinsky, one of the godfathers of Les Six, supposedly referred to Ravel as “the most perfect, Swiss watchmaker”. Poulenc and his party could never be accused of being clock-watchers; their social hours were dimly lit by sputtering candles as the parties continued through the night, with Jean Cocteau or Picasso (other godfathers) opening yet another bottle of Bordeaux.
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The subtitle for my Quartet No. 1 has in it a pun and a puzzle: the six movements as an echo of ‘Les Six’, although there are no quotes or direct references from those composers; and ‘encounters’ which are unspecified, their phantom occurrence leaving only a trace in the memory of the places where the meetings might have taken place.
I) Au boulevard
Stravinskian spikes elbow across the four instruments, with jagged accents, darting arpeggios and bracing white-note harmonies. Indeed, no sharps or flats appear until bar 35 when the main theme is suddenly transformed into technicolor for the central section, blushed with sentiment, and exactly half-tempo.
II) Au Parc
Under a pizzicato accompaniment a gentle, melancholy melody floats and is passed around the players in a haze of decorative variations, the central section warming the trope like vermouth around a bitter olive.
III) A l’hôtel
A bustling fugato, its short subject incorporating repeated notes, an arpeggio and a scale, patters in metronomic conversation until it suddenly finds itself swept off its feet on a decadent dance floor. It is soon exhausted and the opening material returns, now inverted and condensed, until a hectic coda hurries the theme through many keys with offbeat, snapping chords in pursuit.
IV) Au théâtre
A spiccatissimo skeleton of a motive dances in a recurring harmonic sequence, decorated with each repetition in more and more lurid colours, smeared with lipstick glissandos. Then comes a sudden change of mood with the viola’s plangent ‘amoroso’ melody pushing the music forward to a splashing climax. The swirls of arpeggios segue to ferocious tremolos underneath the 1st violin’s ‘piangendo’ statement of the opening theme. As the music totters on the edge of despair there is a meltdown into a coda of consolation where the viola reimagines the opening skeleton theme in smooth, consoling D-flat major.
V) A l’eglise
We remain in D-flat major for this serene hymn which is sewn together into one four-part seam across the con sordino instruments – with a glance perhaps back to Ravel’s teacher, Gabriel Faure.
VI) A la marché
This whole movement energetically tosses material from one player to the other in a moto perpetuo of exuberance. Material from the rest of the piece reappears (most prominently the harmonic progression from the central section of the 2nd movement) until the work ends as it began with the 1st movement’s Stravinskian spikes, interrupted in the penultimate bar with a feroce quote of the opening of the 3rd movement.
STEPHEN HOUGH
Frederic Chopin
Nocturne, Op. 9 No. 2
Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31
At age 20, Frédéric Chopin composed one of his most iconic works, the Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, as part of his Op. 9 set written between 1830 and 1832 and dedicated to the virtuoso pianist Marie Moke-Pleyel. Chopin elevated the nocturne — a brief, night-inspired piano piece — to new heights, refining it into a single-movement character piece that encapsulates both lyrical beauty and emotional complexity. Influenced by the operatic bel canto style of Bellini and Rossini, Chopin’s melodies often evoke the graceful, singing lines of Italian arias. Franz Liszt noted how Chopin’s nocturnes not only captured harmonies of “ineffable delights” but also conveyed deeper, more restless emotions, their poetic melancholy drawing listeners into a world of sublime sorrow and haunting beauty. The structure of the E-flat major Nocturne, with its repeating A and B melodies elaborated upon each recurrence, culminates in a coda that introduces a new melody, creating a work that feels both timeless and deeply personal.
The Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31, composed in 1837, represents one of Chopin’s most powerful reimaginings of the scherzo form—a genre already established by composers like Beethoven and Mendelssohn, where it typically conveyed lightness and jest. While Chopin retained the scherzo’s traditional A-B-A structure, he infused it with a new emotional depth and dramatic intensity, redefining the term entirely. The piece opens with a bold, questioning motif immediately followed by a scornful, emphatic retort, described by critics as a striking example of musical sarcasm. Chopin’s student Wilhelm von Lenz, who studied the work with the composer, recalled how Chopin was never satisfied with his playing: “It was never questioning enough, never piano enough, never vaulted (tombé) enough, never important enough.” On another occasion, Chopin remarked, “It must be a charnel house.” The lyrical middle section, in D-flat major, offers a serene contrast—a “long ribbon of melody sung on a single breath,” according to Zdzisław Jachimecki. As the piece progresses, the music becomes increasingly agitated, building to an impassioned climax before the return of the opening material. In the coda, the questioning phrase returns, but now resolved, leading the work to a triumphant, thundering conclusion.
Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34, is widely considered one of the most powerful and masterfully constructed works in the chamber music repertoire. However, its creation was far from straightforward. Brahms initially composed the piece in 1862 as a string quintet for two violins, viola, and two cellos, inspired by Schubert’s C Major String Quintet. While Clara Schumann praised its richness and beauty, the violinist Joseph Joachim found the string writing excessively challenging and unclear. Taking this criticism to heart, Brahms reworked the piece as a sonata for two pianos, which he published as Op. 34b. Yet, despite the sonata’s grandeur, Clara Schumann felt that its expressive potential was stifled by the monochromatic sound of two pianos. Encouraged by her suggestion, Brahms tried once more, this time transforming the work into a piano quintet, achieving the perfect synthesis of piano and strings that would solidify the piece’s place among the greatest chamber works of all time.
The resulting Piano Quintet in F Minor is a testament to Brahms’s meticulous craftsmanship and innovative approach to form and texture.
The work opens with a dramatically charged Allegro non troppo, its powerful opening theme presented in unison by the piano and strings, establishing a dialogue of tension and lyricism that unfolds with remarkable coherence. The following Andante, with its warm, singing melody introduced by the piano, offers a moment of repose, while the Scherzo erupts with fiery energy and rhythmic drive, contrasting sharply with its more lyrical central Trio section. The Finale, with its brooding introduction and folk-like dance themes, draws on fugal writing and chromaticism to build toward a triumphant, fiery conclusion.
Brahms’s struggle to find the right instrumental combination resulted in a piece that is both orchestral in scope and intensely intimate. The quintet’s dramatic contrasts, rhythmic complexity, and seamless thematic development reveal the influence of both Beethoven and Schubert while remaining uniquely Brahmsian. Hermann Levi, one of Brahms’s most trusted musical advisors, praised the final version as “beautiful beyond measure,” noting how the sonorities of the piano and strings had achieved a “model of tonal beauty.” The piece’s combination of passionate intensity and structural sophistication has continued to captivate audiences and performers alike, securing its status as one of the cornerstones of the chamber music repertoire.
