Stephen Hough’s French Album

Stephen Hough (piano), Hyperion CDA 67890 *****

Stephen Hough describes this CD as "a sort of musical dessert trolley", though as a French offering it comes with some decidedly foreign elements – Bach, both extrovert and introvert, transcribed by Alfred Cortot, and a fantasy on Halévy's opera La juive by Liszt. Even the genuine French content is unpredictable. It reaches beyond Fauré, Ravel, Poulenc and Debussy to Massenet, Chabrier, Chaminade, Alkan and Delibes. Everything is beautifully done. Even the four pieces by the ever-elusive Fauré find focus and full depth in Hough's hands. And who could fail to be impressed by the visionary Alkan's La chanson de la folle au bord de la mer (The song of the mad woman on the sea shore), as disturbingly strange a piece as was conceived anywhere during the 1840s. Treasurable stuff. url.ie/4qdb