Hough: Sonata No.4 (Vida Breve) - Stephen Hough

Performed by Stephen Hough at Tippet Rise July 13, 2019. Located in Fishtail, Montana, Tippet Rise celebrates art, music, architecture, and nature: inextricably linked in the human experience, each making the others more powerful.

Hough: Sonata No.4 (Vida Breve)
Performed by: Stephen Hough

Film Director: Emily Rund
Cinematographer: Emily Rund
Camera Operator: Emily Rund, Cara Engh, & Brian Lambert
Editor: James B. Joyce
Post-Production Assistant: Cara Engh
Sound Recording: Monte Nickles, Jim Ruberto, Graeme Martin
Piano Tuner: Mike Toia
Sound Editor: Jim Ruberto
Sound Mastering: Monte Nickles

A note from Stephen Hough: "This piece is comprised of an assemblage and manipulation of five tiny motivic cells lasting a few seconds each. After a page of doodling we hear them lined up in a slow, expressive fugato. This builds up to a climax restating the opening improvised whisper in shouting octaves at the top of the piano after which there is another fugato, this time energetic and rhythmic. The next climax places the fifth of the motivic cells centre-stage in a sudden passionate outburst where we hear it more clearly as a quote from the popular French chanson 'En Avril a Paris', made famous by Charles Trenet. The final section allows all the cells to take on a whirling, anarchic life of their own leading to a headlong conclusion, the opening page’s hazy questioning answered with six irate octaves at the bottom of the keyboard.

I like subtitles. 'Vida Breve' has no reference to Manuel de Falla's piece of the same name but rather is meant to evoke the melancholy of life's short duration as well as to prepare the listener for a sonata lasting only around ten minutes. Published by Josef Weinberger Ltd. https://www.josef-weinberger.com/musi..."

Produced in house at Tippet Rise Art Center

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