Music Monday: Hough Plays Rachmaninov

     For twenty-five years opera dominated my adult life, so much so that I drifted completely out of the solo pianist loop that had dominated my youth. During my operatic career, I hardly ever listened to piano rep, and when I did, I always listened to the artists I loved as a young student -- Rubinstein, Vásáry, Arrau, Kempff, Brendel, de Larrocha. For decades, I knew nothing of contemporary concert pianists; didn't even know any names, other than Murray Perahia, and I only knew him because I chanced to see him once on television.

     Since leaving both opera and monastic life, I have slowly gotten reacquainted with pianists and piano rep. I have permitted myself the joy of listening to others, something I deprived myself of for some years after quitting the keyboard. It was just too painful for me at first; but I've since not only learned to listen without yearning to play again, but to embrace, and indeed to love, listening. It has made my quiet life brighter and more beautiful.
     Stephen Hough (for those who don't already know, it's pronounced "huff") has become not only my favorite living pianist, but also a personal hero, and I owe my discovery of him to another of my personal heroes, David Hyde Pierce. In an interview in some publication or other, can't remember which publication, the interviewer asked David what are the first five things on his iPod. One of them was Hough's album of the complete works of Rachmaninov for piano and orchestra. I decided to trust David's taste (since he himself is an accomplished amateur classical pianist) and ordered the CD. I fell instantly in love with Hough's playing and have since been ordering his CDs right and left, and viewing all the videos I can find of him on YouTube.

          REAWAKENING

          for Stephen Hough

          In this smooth sameness of days, I listen
          to music I have always known and hear
          new song; notes once hidden within, unvoiced
          by pedal's haze, leap out to touch a nerve,
          compelling me to fracture the surface,
          to reconcile clarity and turmoil,
          to acknowledge the unexpected grace
          that glints beneath the ash of sacrifice.
          Something linear calls the artist forth,
          bids him provoke; in the end, sanctify
          the underscoring vigor in these days
          that pass andante, legato, serene.
          Is it sameness, after all, challenging
          the spirit that sleeps even in waking?

          © Leticia Austria 2012

     Unfortunately, as far as I've been able to find them, videos of Hough's Rachmaninov can only be had on YouTube in chopped-up live performances. Here, in three parts, is his performance from the 2001 BBC Proms of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, conductor.