On July 13th at Kumho Art Hall Yonsei
Performances of Chaminade, Liszt, and Chopin
Sir Stephen Hough, a British pianist who has received the prestigious 'Gramophone Award' eight times, will hold a solo recital in Korea for the first time in 16 years on July 13 at Kumho Art Hall Yonsei.
Sir Hough will perform works by C?cile Chaminade, Franz Liszt, and Fr?d?ric Chopin. He selected pieces focusing on the musical relationships among the three composers.
Chaminade was the first female composer to receive the French Legion of Honor. Inspired by Chopin, she composed many elegant and delicate pieces embodying the essence of Romanticism. Chopin and Liszt were contemporaries who influenced each other.
In the first half, he will perform Chaminade's "Automne" and "Avant que tu ne t'en ailles" along with Liszt's only piano sonata. This program is designed to showcase the contrasting musical expressions of Chaminade and Liszt. In the second half, he will play Chaminade's "Theme and Variations in A Major," "The Woodland Sprite," and Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2. Unlike the first half, the selected works share similar musical textures.
Sir Hough is regarded as a pianist known for his profound and scholarly performances. He has released over 60 albums and won the Gramophone Award eight times. Notably, he received the 'Record of the Year' award in 1996 and 2002, and the Gramophone Gold Disc Award in 2008. The 2008 Golden Disc Award for his complete recording of Saint-Sa?ns' piano concertos was a significant honor given by Gramophone for the best recordings over the past 30 years. His complete recording of Chopin waltzes in 2012 won the Diapason d'Or of the Year and was nominated multiple times for the Grammy Awards.
Sir Hough was the first classical musician to receive the MacArthur Fellowship (2001), and he has also been awarded the Jin Kim Bell Lane Prize in Piano from Northwestern University (2008), the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award (2010), and was appointed an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) in 2016. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2014 and was knighted in 2022 in honor of the Queen's birthday.
In addition, as a distinguished writer, he contributes to The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine, and has published four books. He is an Honorary Fellow of Girton College, University of Cambridge, and serves as the International Head of Piano at his alma mater, the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK, as well as a professor at the Juilliard School.
Sir Hough's solo recital in Korea is presented by the Kumho Cultural Foundation as part of the 'International Masters' series, which highlights musicians active at the very center of the global classical music scene. Earlier this year, in January and February, the series featured performances by Paul Lewis and Vadym Kholodenko, and in November, a recital by pianist Nelson Goerner is scheduled.
Prior to this solo recital, on July 10-11, he will collaborate with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Kim Eun-sun, Music Director of San Francisco Opera, performing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 at Lotte Concert Hall.
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