9.

*** Although Stephen Hough combines an amazing technique with great musical refinement, his choice of programme at the City Hall on Wednesday night was not a little bizarre.

He began his recital with a set of variations by the American composer Aaron Copland. Copland, whose works often display his great love of indigenous American folksongs `Rodeo' and `Appalachian Spring', deserted this popular style entirely in his Piano Variations. Abstract and fiercely dissonant, these variations, composed in 1930, though devoid of melodic interest, reflect in their vibrant rhythmic vitality, the energy of the turbulent century in which they were written. We live in percussive times.

Kreisleriana by Robert Schumann followed, and a dramatic change in style. Here was all the pathos and colour of the nineteenth century Romantic School. Like many of Schumann's fantasies, `Papillons' and `Carnival', Kreisleriana is a set of related pieces contrasted in style and mood. These were brilliantly played, and the second in B flat with its lingering haunting melody particularly displayed Mr. Hough's wonderful pianissimo playing to full advantage.

After the intermission, the programme was devoted, with the exception of Mozart's beautiful variations, `Ah, vous Dirai-je, Maman', to music from Russia.

It is almost impossible to devise a balanced programme of piano music which concentrates on the Romantic Era without popping a bit of Chopin or Liszt in somewhere. Mr. Hough not only managed to avoid this, highlighting instead, the music of Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky and including transcriptions of the latter's music which emulated some of the worst excesses of the nineteenth century salon.

The repertoire of original piano music of this period is so extensive one wonders why this was necessary. Serious musical education hardly existed in Russia until the establishment of The Russian Musical Society in 1859 through the efforts of Anton Rubenstein. For the remainder of the century, production of the piano was small, and consumption in this vast empire a fraction of other industrial European nations. This reveals the relative insignificance culturally, of the prosperous middle class. Musical education at this time was still very much the prerogative of the Russian aristocrat.

Under the circumstances, it is interesting to contemplate the numbers of remarkable composers for the piano and the outstanding virtuosos of the instrument that emerged from late Imperial Russia.

One of the most important of these was Sergei Rachmaninov. Mr. Hough's interpretation of the delightful Humoresque Opus 10 No. 5 was one of the highlights of the evening, as was his cantabile playing in the composer's Melodie Opus 3 No. 3. Rachmaninov breathes Romanticism and even when the music is not his own invention, as in his arrangement of Kreisler's violin piece, `Lieleslei', he shows himself to be a master. This was finely crafted and beautifully performed.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the concert paraphrase on `The Sleeping Beauty' which though undeniably virtuosic, verged on the vulgar. `The Dance of the Little Swans' was less so, but as I've suggested before, who needs orchestral transcriptions in this day and age? Much more effective was the composer in original form with Humoresque Opus 10 No. 2 and Dumka Opus 59.

Stephen Hough is an exciting pianist, and although his choice of programme was questionable at times, his performance was much enjoyed by the capacity audience. He played two encores, `Young girls and Gardens' by the Spanish composer Federico Mompou, which he dedicated to harpist Marisa Robles who was in attendance, and Pierrete by Chaminade.

MARJORIE PETTIT STEPHEN HOUGH -- An exciting pianist