Review: Rachmaninov with Sir Stephen Hough at Philharmonic Hall ****1/2

It’s turning into a season of homecomings in Hope Street.

Earlier this month, Sir Simon Rattle brought his acclaimed Bavarian orchestral outfit to the Philharmonic Hall to kickstart a pre-Christmas European tour in fine fashion. And in the spring, Huyton piano genius Paul Lewis returns to play Beethoven on the hall’s Steinway.

Sandwiched in between, Sir Stephen Hough, whose formative years were spent in the Art Deco auditorium – surrounded by its ‘daring’ gold relief of naked ladies – as well as studying piano down the road at number 33.

Perhaps it’s apt then that for his latest visit ‘home’, the Heswall polymath should opt for a piece of youthful exuberance in the form of Sergei Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto.

Rachmaninov was still a gangly teenage student at the Moscow Conservatoire, where his contemporaries knew him by the nickname Seryosha, when he composed the first of his four keyboard concertos in 1891 (he revised it 26 years later as a more mature 40-something but happily retained its freshness).

It’s been underappreciated because of, and rather overshadowed by, his crowd-pleasing second and third concertos. But while it doesn’t have their romantic resonance and instantly hummable melodies, the first certainly has plenty of fireworks – and its own ravishing melody in the andante second movement.

It also needs bags of stamina, and was evidently thirsty work with Hough clutching a pint glass of iced water as he settled himself in the circle after the interval. Or at least I presume it was water!

While never wildly flamboyant, Hough here performed with power and panache, from the concerto’s double octave, firecracker opening (Grieg surely one influence on the teenage Sergei) that was a Roy Lichtenstein painting in punchy musical form, to the fleet-fingered, madcap dash of the work’s swashbuckling finale.

Domingo Hindoyan, on the podium, led the Phil into a lovely lyrical main melody which was then taken up by Hough and embellished. And there was an evident sense of collaboration and camaraderie on stage – later in the opening movement Hough sat intently watching the orchestra as it played a second theme, before turning back to the keys to embark on a cadenza of glittering brilliance.

The brief andante nocturne second movement was a soft and gentle firebreak before an allegro vivace finale that was both allegro and vivace in spades, Hough joyfully nimble and precise and the Phil providing some succulent support.

The audience wasn’t going to let him get away without an encore, and it being Thanksgiving, Hough pulled his own delightful arrangement of the Sherman Brothers’ Feed the Birds from his back pocket. An (ear)worm the birds would have appreciated.

Rachmaninov was preceded by Manuel de Falla’s 1919 piano piece Fantasia Baetica, in a new arrangement for orchestra by Francisco Coll and getting its first UK outing in Liverpool.

A clever bit of complementary programming, it was a riot of dynamic punctuation and colour (to my mind at least like a musical pixie high on sugar ricocheting around a sweet shop), with plenty of work for percussion and some pleasing swell and sway in the strings. It would have been even better if there hadn’t been a lengthy hiatus between pieces while Hough’s piano was wheeled centre stage, diffusing the energy in the room somewhat.

The programme was completed by Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite, finely judged by Hindoyan and crisply played by the orchestra, from a purposeful and bruising Montagues and Capulets opening to the aching and poignant emotion-infused deaths of the star-crossed lovers. There was some particularly good playing by the winds throughout.

If you missed it on Thursday night, never fear - Hough, Hindoyan and the Phil do it all again on Sunday.

Top: Sir Stephen Hough. Photo by Sam Canetty-Clarke