Dvořák: Piano Concertos — review

Dvořák and Schumann

Piano Concertos

Stephen Hough

(Hyperion)

Stephen Hough has written about the “neglected but gloriously lyrical music” of Dvořák’s Piano Concerto. He must love it, as he has learnt the concerto in Dvořák’s notoriously awkward-to-play original version.

Here is a first cousin to Brahms’s two piano concertos, part heartfelt Czech lyricism, part German symphonic strength, wholeheartedly played by Hough and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons.

In their hands Schumann’s Piano Concerto often sounds like Brahms, too — more power than poetry, an acquired taste perhaps, but full of conviction.