Stephen Hough to Perform Dvorak's Piano Concerto with OSL at Carnegie Hall, 1/15

British pianist Stephen Hough, regarded as a renaissance man of his time, returns to New York for the first of two Carnegie Hall engagements this season. On January 15, Mr. Hough plays Dvorak's Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33, with Orchestra of St. Luke's led by Harry Bicket in a program that includes Wagner's Siegfried Idyll and Haydn's Symphony No. 104 in D Major, "London." Often overshadowed by his cello and violin concertos, Dvorak's Piano Concerto is a notorious challenge-Mr. Hough claims even more so than the piano works of Liszt.

Mr. Hough says, "The Dvorak concerto is the ultimate lyric concerto, anti-virtuosic and deeply soulful-yet impossibly awkward to play. This concerto for ten thumbs is actually one of my favourites. It has a rare tenderness and human warmth which, when discovered, never loses its power."

The performance takes place at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium on Thursday, January 15 at 8 p.m. Tickets priced from $15.50 to $90 are available from Carnegie Hall by phone at (212) 247-7800, online at www.carnegiehall.org, or in person at the box office.

The Sydney Morning Herald review this past September of Mr. Hough's Dvorak concerto performance with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra states, "Dvorak's Piano Concerto has always been a wallflower, passed over as high on difficulty and low on charm and brilliance. In Stephen Hough it may have found its ideal champion. He brought disciplined tempos that clarified and strengthened the sense of form, architectural balance and gravitas, and the brilliant precision of his playing brought vividness and excitement to passages in the outer movements that otherwise can come across as somewhat formulaic note-spinning. Dvorak's textures are original, avoiding many of the new pianistic discoveries of the virtuoso composers like Liszt, yet, when realised with the scrupulous fidelity Hough managed, have their own appeal."

Mr. Hough will appear again at Carnegie Hall on May 9 as part of its Keyboard Virtuosos recital series, performing solo works by Debussy and Chopin.

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