Hough Lurton

As everyone with a thesaurus knows, urgency rhymes with emergency. And these performances of Rachmaninov's works for piano and orchestra by Stephen Hough with Andrew Litton leading the Dallas Symphony are nothing if they are not urgent. Hough's tempos are quick and strong and vital, with plenty of rubato and lots of accelerando. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that.

Julianne Hough is the self-titled debut album of American country singer, and professional dancer, Julianne Hough. The album was released on May 20, 2008 on Mercury Nashville Records. After its release, the album debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200. The album was produced by David Malloy. Hough's debut album also debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart May 28, 2008. The lead single off the album, "That Song in My Head", was released the week of March 3, 2008, and peaked at number 18 on that chart. "My Hallelujah Song" was released as the second single on September 22, peaking at number 44 and the music video was ranked number 48 on GAC's Top 50 Videos of the Year list.

Playing together for the first time for Hyperion, Hough and Isserlis are stunningly matched in this large-scale passionate romantic programme. The sonatas stand at the centre of the meaty repertoire established by Brahms—whose two cello sonatas Steven Isserlis has recorded for us in an award-winning disc accompanied by Peter Evans (CDA66159)—and characterised by grand sweeping gestures, lush melody, and heartfelt emotions that sear from pathos to frenzy. The Franck is, of course, an alternative version the composer wished for his violin sonata, a transition that many feel to be the work's happiest incarnation.

Debussy's piano music has always been popular, of course, but the variety of good and distinctive recordings of it in the middle and late 2010s must point to some kind of cultural trend. This one by the fine pianist Stephen Hough comes on the heels of a selection by young Seong-Jin Cho, and the two recordings make a fascinating pair, covering much of the same territory. The program diverges with Hough opening with the Estampes, while Cho plays the more proto-neoclassical Suite Bergamasque.

In 1984 Steven Isserlis made excellent recordings for Hyperion of the Brahms sonatas with Peter Evans; this time he's added some substantial extra items – the two Suk pieces, wonderfully played, are particularly welcome. The new recording is fuller in sound and more realistic; Stephen Hough's commanding playing of Brahms's 'big' piano parts could, one feels, overpower the cello but, thanks to his sensitivity, this never happens.

It would be difficult to find two more dissimilar contemporaries than these two composers. Strongly influenced by Chopin, Liszt and Wagner, Scriabin exploits an unbridled level of sensuality and pushes conventional tonality to its very limits. Janáček is no less impassioned, yet confronts images of foreboding and tragedy in an assertive idiosyncratic language strongly tinged with folk music.