Nicola Lisle talks to pianist Stephen Hough ahead of his recital next week

‘They are all little pieces, but all of them pack a certain punch,” is how Stephen Hough describes the programme he has put together for next week’s recital in Oxford.

Starting with the shortest — Schoenberg’s Six Little Pieces — the works gradually lengthen as the concert progresses, ending with Schumann’s Carnaval, which consists of 21 short scenes. “The Schoenberg pieces are extra-ordinarily concentrated — mere atoms but explosive energy of purpose,” says Stephen. “There are clear links bet-ween Brahms and Schumann, between Schoenberg and Brahms, between Wagner, Strauss and Bruckner, but in the end I hope they just make a satisfy-ing whole. I tried to put together a programme of variety and connection.”

The only exception to the “little pieces” theme is Hough’s own Piano Sonata No. 2 (notturno luminoso), which at 18 minutes is the longest piece in the programme. Although best known as a pianist, Stephen has been a prolific composer for much of his career. “Composing is very important to me and I always have something on the go,” he says. “At the moment I’m writing a third piano sonata for the Barbican, having just finished a song cycle for the Wigmore. I wrote a lot of music for the first 20 years of my life, nothing much except encores and transcriptions for the next 20, and now quite a lot in the past eight years or so.”

In fact, Stephen does “quite a lot” of many things. In between playing, recording and composing, he finds time to write for The Times and The Guardian, as well as writing a widely read cultural blog in The Daily Telegraph, and is a keen painter How does he fit all this into his busy schedule? “I rarely watch TV in hotels so I have lots of time on my hands when I’ve finished rehearsing or playing. I often use this time for reading or working. Also if I have an idea for something it doesn’t take me a long time to get it down on paper.”

Stephen started learning the piano at the age of six and went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music and the Juilliard School in New York. In 1983 he won the Naumburg Inter-national Piano Competition in New York, at the age of 21, and has become one of the world’s most celebrated pianists. He was made a CBE in 2014.

Stephen Hough
St John the Evangelist Church, Iffley Road, Oxford
Tuesday, 7.30pm
For tickets, visit sje-oxford.org or musicatoxford.com or call 01865 305305