This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
Britten was a superb pianist, and as a composer he always preferred to have the piano to hand. Strange then that his solo piano works should be on the whole so disappointing. The facility is – as you’d expect – striking, but depths are avoided in favour of that typical idealised boyish charm (not to everyone’s taste) and occasional flashes of mercurial wit and/or naughty-boy wrong-note humour. Stephen Hough is at his lucid, seductive best, and the recordings serve him and duo-partner Ronan O’Hora well; but it’s the two-piano works which leave the strongest impression – the humour has a sharper edge, the invention more contrapuntal muscle and emotional force. Still, none of it is really great Britten.
Performance: 5 (out of 5); Sound:
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5 (out of 5)
-- Stephen Johnson, BBC Music Magazine
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Works on This Recording
1.
Holiday Diary for Piano, Op. 5 by Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Stephen Hough (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1934; England
2.
Introduction and Rondo alla burlesca for 2 Pianos, Op. 23 no 1 by Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Stephen Hough (Piano),
Ronan O'Hora (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1940; England
3.
Mazurka elegiaca for 2 Pianos, Op. 23 no 2 by Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Ronan O'Hora (Piano),
Stephen Hough (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1941; England
4.
Character Pieces (3) for Piano by Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Stephen Hough (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1930; England
5.
Night Piece for Piano "Notturno" by Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Stephen Hough (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1963; England
6.
Sonatina Romantica for Piano by Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Stephen Hough (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1940; USA
7.
Variations (12) on a theme for Piano by Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Stephen Hough (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1931; England
8.
Waltzes (5) for Piano by Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Stephen Hough (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1923/1969; England
9.
Lullabies (2) for 2 Pianos by Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Ronan O'Hora (Piano),
Stephen Hough (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1936; England
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