Stephen Hough has gained an individual reputation as a pianist due to the sheer breadth of his interests as a composer, pianist and writer – just to name a few areas to which he is passionately devoted. It is not amiss to call him a complete pianist – one who is equally at home in rediscovering forgotten or overlooked treasures from the past whilst keeping a unique place when it comes to his own compositions for the piano whilst celebrating the many sides to his intellectual personality – be they philosophically or technically based. And it was with a deeply thought out recital ranging from Schubert, Liszt and the rather neglected Cesar Frank, to his own witty way with the twelve-tone system, that he more than adequately covered all required bases and more.

Much thought has gone into the planning of this excellent recital, linking all four of these composers. Initially it appears that the binding idea here is the binding ideas of Catholicism – for not only would Schubert and Franck have been bound by the structures of 19th-century dogma, (Liszt may be seen to have taken this idea even further by becoming an abbé), but obviously these ideas...