Four Ballades, Four Scherzos

- Recording of the month (Gramophon May 2004)

"Playing that scales the heights: these inexhaustible pieces really do catch fire. Stephen Hough has long enjoyed critical acclaim in (Gramophone). It's not just because he combines a staggering technique with a genuinely engaging musical imagination, it's also because he's not content with only playing standard repertoire. His first Gramophone Award was for Hummel piano concertos (soon to return at mid-price as part of Chandos's 25th birthday celebrations) and subsequent Awards have been for Mompou, Sauer and Scharwenka (with Saint-Saëns as the most 'central' composer to gain him the honours). This month, it is standard fare - Chopin Ballades and Scherzos - but the playing and approach are anything but standard. Here is music that is heard across the world every day, given a totally fresh approach - and a gloriously successful one at that."
(Gramophone)

Here is some of the finest piano music to have come out of the nineteenth century. Chopin's Ballades and Scherzos are individual creations of extraordinary expressive range and daring originality; they are among the most taxing works of the piano repertoire, as much for their interpretative challenges as their formidable technical ones.
This recording finds Stephen Hough on top form. He has performed these works in concert for many years, and with his dazzling pianism, penetrating intellect, beauty of sound and clarity of line, he is superbly equipped for this music. Unusually, Hough alternates the Ballades and Scherzos, as he feels that this sequence gives us a closer sense of continuous and unfolding musical biography, and that by dispensing with the cycle format the listener is enabled to hear each piece as an individual entity - as eight startlingly original and unique works.

A truly memorable disc, one surely set to become a top recommendation.