Stephen Hough: Piano Sonata No.2 (notturno luminoso)

Stephen Hough’s Piano sonata No. 2 (notturno luminoso) is a joint commission with funds generously supplied by Lakeside Arts Centre, University of Nottingham; The Schubert Club, St. Paul, Minnesota; Singapore International Piano Festival; Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts and the Vancouver Recital Society. It was given its premiere by the composer at the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts, on October 9, 2012.

“The brilliant, toccata-like opening might have been Messiaen; Scriabin, Webern and Rachmaninov were also audible, as was the jazz of the American composers…virtuosic and sparse, the music had a vibrant presence”
The Guardian

“It’s an uneasy confluence of anxious fear and dark foreboding, a nocturne built around night terrors and urban alienation… this work expanded the palette to employ some very contemporary colours”
Pioneer Press

“It opens and closes with harshly sonorous chimes; in between, Hough creates a restless musical maze that gains momentum until it becomes a seemingly unstoppable toccata. Hough’s voice in this piece is distinctively his own”
The Guardian

“it was interesting to understand Hough’s intellectual standpoint when composing… the concepts which these ideas represented did come across clearly to the audience nonetheless, and the piece was clearly characterful in every section”
Bachtrack

“Hough quickly goes his own way, juggling with wild panache his different colours, piano registers and modes of attack… 17 jolting minutes of nocturnal fretting share enough threads to form a convincing, compelling structure. Very impressive. Even breathtaking.”
The Times

“Jagged, aggressive chords at the beginning soon break up into motoric rhythms and wispy sprays of notes that take on the character of rivulets of water running between rocks. This quirky “Notturno” is impressive.”
Star Tribune

The sonata is now available for purchase:
Hal Leonard Website - Piano Sonata No.2
Faber Music UK

ISMN: M-57005-697-2
Price: £11.95