Post by Billy R on Aug 29, 2009 22:42:32 GMT 1
The announcement that Stephen Hough will play all of Tchaikovsky's works for piano and orchestra at this year's Proms is not in itself surprising. His CV already recalls acclaimed performances and recordings of the complete piano works of Rachmaninov and Saint-Saëns. "But I actually think of myself as being rather against completism," says Hough in his practice studio off Abbey Road in London. "I mean I'm against completism for its own sake. Doing all the Beethoven sonatas, for instance, has never appealed. I've always preferred to only do work I feel close to."
He says the Rachmaninov project was interesting because it was live recordings. And he initially only wanted to record three of Saint-Saëns's five concertos. "I dug in my heels for over a year. But eventually my record company persuaded me and, looking back, I'm rather glad they did." The recording not only won Gramophone record of the year in 2001, but was later voted the "winner of winners" in a poll commemorating 30 years of the award. But despite such a formidable track record, Hough is approaching the Tchaikovsky project with some reticence. "I'd somehow avoided the first concerto when I was studying. Then, as a professional, so many other people played it there didn't seem a good reason to start." But while giving a masterclass four years ago he was again exposed to it, "and some ideas began to gel. Then I looked at the second concerto and realised there really was something I could do here."
Hough's research into the man and the music are at the core of his performances, and the opening up of former Soviet archives has provided fresh biographical material that has prompted reassessment of the composer. "I set out with the same preconceptions as most people: he was a neurotic, self-hating person who killed himself," says Hough. "It has been widely assumed that Tchaikovsky died after deliberately drinking cholera-infected water. But it turns out there's actually no hard evidence for this. And that does change the way you listen to the music."
The proximity of Tchaikovsky's death in 1893 to the Oscar Wilde trial, just two years later, also casts new light on his posthumous reputation. "There was a hysteria about homosexuality. It had been much easier to be gay in London before the trial than after, and the Soviet Union soon had problems of its own with the issue. Tchaikovsky was well known to be gay. What, then, do you do with a composer who is loved and admired, and is also now seen as a criminal? The answer was to make him ill. He couldn't possibly have been at ease with himself being gay, hence the self-loathing, the neuroticism and eventually the suicide. It let people continue to enjoy the music because its creator could be pitied. Of course, the music is intensely emotional, but we have put on to it a hysteria which is a rather unpleasant quality, and I don't actually think is there. And of course all this affects the way I play it."
Hough, 47, has been a regular performer at the Proms for many years. But he didn't actually attend the festival until he was 19. Although something of a musical prodigy - aged eight he won a national music competition prompting the Daily Mail to describe him as the "new Mozart" - he says he wasn't from a musical family and had a fairly normal childhood. "There were offers to do TV and things after that competition, but my parents, thank goodness, resisted." He went to Chetham's, the Manchester music school, but didn't particularly shine, and practised as little as he could get away with. "And then I'd listen to Led Zeppelin or Emerson, Lake and Palmer or watch way too much TV. I can remember an awful lot about Crossroads and Crown Court and Bless This House."
But, aged about 17, Hough heard a tutor playing a sequence of chords from the end of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. "They somehow fascinated me. Those chords really did change my life. They pulled me back to serious music and I began taking playing more seriously. They also set me on a road to Catholicism."
He had been baptised a Methodist and confirmed an Anglican. Cardinal Newman's poem, the basis of Elgar's libretto, provided an introduction to Rome, and Hough soon converted, much to the disapproval of his "very Orange Liverpool" grandmother. Another potential difficulty to his conversion might also have been his own sexuality. "Of course, if you read the Bible literally in a certain kind of way then it can be rather scary. I started out with the convert's enthusiasm and was a very conservative Catholic. But I'm now much more flexible." Hough has written a prayer guide book and journalism on the issue of homosexuality and the church. "There is much now that I value that is shared with my former traditions. And with non-believers as well. There is so much common ground. People never really grasped that John Paul II was actually quite interested in atheism. We should all be able to both defend things and to acknowledge that some things are indefensible. The history of Christianity is far from immune to criticism. It has not lived up to its promise in so many different ways."
It was while studying at the Juilliard School in New York that Hough's professional career took off. He won the prestigious Naumburg award in 1983, which gave him dates with the likes of the Chicago and Philadelphia orchestras. He has retained strong links with the country; in 2001 he was awarded a MacArthur "genius" grant and still plays more concerts in the US than anywhere else.
He says despite being fascinated by the process of recording - "it's not the same as sticking a microphone in front of a concert. It is creative in a similar way that putting together a movie is creative" - his first love is performing. "And the Proms remain a unique event. I've played at the Albert Hall in other circumstances and it's just not the same. The Proms is a very particular combination of the highest level of seriousness with a lightest of touch. Everyone is welcome but no one is spoken down to. And it's naturally evolved. I doubt you could invent it now. People all over the world are envious of it, but no one has managed to reproduce it."
In recent years Hough has added composition to performing and recording. He's had a Mass sung at Westminster Cathedral, has set some of Rowan Williams's poems and produced many elegant transcriptions and original pieces that he features in his encores. "Composing does make you read a score more carefully. If you have wrestled as to where to put a crescendo, you do think about it differently when you come across a great composer doing the same thing." He says it is apparent that Tchaikovsky was not a concert-standard pianist. "The concertos are written by someone who had in his mind a sound, but unlike Rachmaninov where you feel he was totally at home with the keyboard, Tchaikovsky is rather more rugged, and they are very awkward to play. Attempts have been made to thin it out a bit and make them a little easier. But you don't really gain anything. Tchaikovsky's thumbprint is lost. Ultimately, you just have to put in the hours and work out how to get your own hands around those awkward passages. You'll see how I got on at the Albert Hall."
• Stephen Hough performs all four works by Tchaikovsky for piano and orchestra at this year's Proms. Details: bbc.co.uk/proms
He says the Rachmaninov project was interesting because it was live recordings. And he initially only wanted to record three of Saint-Saëns's five concertos. "I dug in my heels for over a year. But eventually my record company persuaded me and, looking back, I'm rather glad they did." The recording not only won Gramophone record of the year in 2001, but was later voted the "winner of winners" in a poll commemorating 30 years of the award. But despite such a formidable track record, Hough is approaching the Tchaikovsky project with some reticence. "I'd somehow avoided the first concerto when I was studying. Then, as a professional, so many other people played it there didn't seem a good reason to start." But while giving a masterclass four years ago he was again exposed to it, "and some ideas began to gel. Then I looked at the second concerto and realised there really was something I could do here."
Hough's research into the man and the music are at the core of his performances, and the opening up of former Soviet archives has provided fresh biographical material that has prompted reassessment of the composer. "I set out with the same preconceptions as most people: he was a neurotic, self-hating person who killed himself," says Hough. "It has been widely assumed that Tchaikovsky died after deliberately drinking cholera-infected water. But it turns out there's actually no hard evidence for this. And that does change the way you listen to the music."
The proximity of Tchaikovsky's death in 1893 to the Oscar Wilde trial, just two years later, also casts new light on his posthumous reputation. "There was a hysteria about homosexuality. It had been much easier to be gay in London before the trial than after, and the Soviet Union soon had problems of its own with the issue. Tchaikovsky was well known to be gay. What, then, do you do with a composer who is loved and admired, and is also now seen as a criminal? The answer was to make him ill. He couldn't possibly have been at ease with himself being gay, hence the self-loathing, the neuroticism and eventually the suicide. It let people continue to enjoy the music because its creator could be pitied. Of course, the music is intensely emotional, but we have put on to it a hysteria which is a rather unpleasant quality, and I don't actually think is there. And of course all this affects the way I play it."
Hough, 47, has been a regular performer at the Proms for many years. But he didn't actually attend the festival until he was 19. Although something of a musical prodigy - aged eight he won a national music competition prompting the Daily Mail to describe him as the "new Mozart" - he says he wasn't from a musical family and had a fairly normal childhood. "There were offers to do TV and things after that competition, but my parents, thank goodness, resisted." He went to Chetham's, the Manchester music school, but didn't particularly shine, and practised as little as he could get away with. "And then I'd listen to Led Zeppelin or Emerson, Lake and Palmer or watch way too much TV. I can remember an awful lot about Crossroads and Crown Court and Bless This House."
But, aged about 17, Hough heard a tutor playing a sequence of chords from the end of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. "They somehow fascinated me. Those chords really did change my life. They pulled me back to serious music and I began taking playing more seriously. They also set me on a road to Catholicism."
He had been baptised a Methodist and confirmed an Anglican. Cardinal Newman's poem, the basis of Elgar's libretto, provided an introduction to Rome, and Hough soon converted, much to the disapproval of his "very Orange Liverpool" grandmother. Another potential difficulty to his conversion might also have been his own sexuality. "Of course, if you read the Bible literally in a certain kind of way then it can be rather scary. I started out with the convert's enthusiasm and was a very conservative Catholic. But I'm now much more flexible." Hough has written a prayer guide book and journalism on the issue of homosexuality and the church. "There is much now that I value that is shared with my former traditions. And with non-believers as well. There is so much common ground. People never really grasped that John Paul II was actually quite interested in atheism. We should all be able to both defend things and to acknowledge that some things are indefensible. The history of Christianity is far from immune to criticism. It has not lived up to its promise in so many different ways."
It was while studying at the Juilliard School in New York that Hough's professional career took off. He won the prestigious Naumburg award in 1983, which gave him dates with the likes of the Chicago and Philadelphia orchestras. He has retained strong links with the country; in 2001 he was awarded a MacArthur "genius" grant and still plays more concerts in the US than anywhere else.
He says despite being fascinated by the process of recording - "it's not the same as sticking a microphone in front of a concert. It is creative in a similar way that putting together a movie is creative" - his first love is performing. "And the Proms remain a unique event. I've played at the Albert Hall in other circumstances and it's just not the same. The Proms is a very particular combination of the highest level of seriousness with a lightest of touch. Everyone is welcome but no one is spoken down to. And it's naturally evolved. I doubt you could invent it now. People all over the world are envious of it, but no one has managed to reproduce it."
In recent years Hough has added composition to performing and recording. He's had a Mass sung at Westminster Cathedral, has set some of Rowan Williams's poems and produced many elegant transcriptions and original pieces that he features in his encores. "Composing does make you read a score more carefully. If you have wrestled as to where to put a crescendo, you do think about it differently when you come across a great composer doing the same thing." He says it is apparent that Tchaikovsky was not a concert-standard pianist. "The concertos are written by someone who had in his mind a sound, but unlike Rachmaninov where you feel he was totally at home with the keyboard, Tchaikovsky is rather more rugged, and they are very awkward to play. Attempts have been made to thin it out a bit and make them a little easier. But you don't really gain anything. Tchaikovsky's thumbprint is lost. Ultimately, you just have to put in the hours and work out how to get your own hands around those awkward passages. You'll see how I got on at the Albert Hall."
• Stephen Hough performs all four works by Tchaikovsky for piano and orchestra at this year's Proms. Details: bbc.co.uk/proms