International Piano Fundraiser
VICTORIA KINGHAM
Sir Stephen Hough has been called one of twenty living polymaths: a brilliant piano soloist, he also composes and teaches music, has published poetry, novels and memoirs, and is a professor at various leading music colleges here and in the US. He has also recorded about 50 albums of glorious piano music, mostly of the acknowledged greatest composers but also intentionally to promote the music of lesser known composers.
So it is with justifiable pride that the director of Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, Vanessa Latarche, could announce that he is this season’s Patron. Accordingly, as a fundraiser, he gave a recital for 100 people in the opulent Fairlight Hall on 1 March.
WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS
It’s almost impossible to describe how a truly great performer can make an already-magnificent piece of music into something more: into something almost solid and tangible that is a world in and of itself. He and others refer to the ‘architecture’ of a piece of music. I can only compare looking into any great painting and seeing it for what it is, as a world in itself. He played two of Chopin’s Nocturnes, a Scherzo and a Sonata, as though they had been born within him rather than the result of lifelong pianistic practice. His interpretation of Chopin is dazzling, muscular, fast, yet every nuance of phrase, every elegant decoration, every beauteous sustained Chopinesque chord, is given full attention during the mini-second that it occurs. This approach was fully realised when he played, impeccably, Chopin’s challenging later work, the B-minor Sonata.
The first section of the recital was given to works by Cécile Chaminade. You may not have heard of this composer – I hadn’t – but during her lifetime (born 1857, died 1944) she was in popular demand as both pianist and composer, highly rated in salons everywhere, loved by Queen Victoria and the American intelligentsia. So though Fairlight Hall isn’t quite a salon, the situation was comparable. And actually the first short piece, Automne, sounded kind of familiar. Chaminade’s music is gracious and elegant and deserves more attention than it has had since WWII. Though Hough is of the opinion that ‘music is gender-free’ and of course he’s right, but the culture that surrounds its publicity, performance, and dissemination, is not.
THE LOVELINESS OF MOMPOU
After the towering Chopin, Hough played as an encore a short piece by Frederic Mompou, another lesser-known composer, born in the very late nineteenth century. Such beautiful, pared-down music, influenced by Fauré and Debussy. This piece was Jeune Filles Au Jardin, the middle of which harbours a little ghost of a tune that came back with me as an earworm. I’ve been listening to recordings of works by that composer since then, wondering why I haven’t before.
So, a triumph and an honour for Hastings International Piano Concerto’s new season. Sir Stephen has twice seriously considered the monastic life, and is a devout Catholic convert. He maintains a gruelling tour schedule – this concert was between dates in Bristol and Leeds, then he is off to Texas, Oregon, Hawaii, Canada, London, Tokyo, and Sydney before the end of May. I asked him how he managed this. “I think it’s just a matter of taking every day as it comes, trying to eat sensibly and sleep enough. There are certainly times when it is overwhelming but also I’m conscious of what a wonderful privilege it is to play for people all over the world and bring this music of joy to them”, was his answer.
I hope he doesn’t mind if I also add that he is charming, scrupulously polite, and dimples when he smiles.
The funds raised will also go towards Hastings International Piano Concerto’s educational work in local schools. Hastings International Piano: hastingsinternationalpiano.org Additional funds are being raised through a fantastic silent auction, see hastingsinternationalpiano.org/2025/02/28/hastings-international-piano-auction for details Sir Stephen Hough: stephenhough.com
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