Dec. 04--Stephen Hough's piano recital Thursday night at Northwestern University's new Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall was, among other things, a vivid reminder of how all performances result from a coming together of the player and the room.
What the player puts into the room is, of course, important. But sometimes we overlook that what the room does to what's put into it is equally important to what we hear.
On Thursday, Hough was the virtuoso, playing with vigor, control and power. The live acoustics of the Galvin, however, so projected the power that fortissimos were overwhelming and a true pianissimo seldom registered, severely limiting the music's expressive range.
Those who attended for thunder were not disappointed by Hough's concluding group of works by Franz Liszt, which included the first two "Valses oubliees" and the "Transcendental Etudes" Nos. 11 and 10. The etudes especially had a demonic clangor that showed a level of engagement more common to virtuosi of a bygone age.
Yet the absence of delicate shadings that diminished the tragedy of the opening Schubert Sonata (D. 784) also restricted the playfulness and poetry of the Liszt. And Cesar Franck's Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue lacked the hothouse atmosphere that is conveyed through many pale tints.
We know from other outings that Hough has a variety of touch that translates to a varied palette of color and, hence, emotion. This time, though, the display was fitful and more sustained only in his recent Third Sonata -- the pianist also is a composer. It is a 12-tone essay cast in three movements played without pause and lasting around 20 minutes. Its initial severity gave way to a kaleidoscope of shifting fragments, extrovert as well as subtle. This fuller array of tone quality had less of the desiccation that came with the room's tilt toward the loud and bright.
There were four encores, ranging from Edward Elgar's "Salut d'amour" to zany miniatures by Ludwig Minkus and Hough as well as to a charmed account of the Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2 by Frederic Chopin.
Alan Artner is a freelance critic.
ctc-arts@tribpub.com
