Stephen Hough: 6 things… I love about Chopin

Among the many champions of the Polish composer is the British classical pianist Stephen Hough. A regular and popular performer here at the Southbank Centre, Hough also has a long connection to Chopin’s works, and in October 2021, ahead of a performance of a number of them here in our Royal Festival Hall, he explained what it is that he loves about Chopin.

Chopin is a classicist

There is always the sense that shape and proportion matter. He’s not exactly an architect in the way Beethoven was, but nothing is haphazard in Chopin, everything is carefully judged, fastidious and meticulous in every one of his creations. There isn’t a chord which has not been lovingly groomed and tweezed to perfection.

Chopin is a romantic

He finds a way directly to our emotions and then goes further. He recognises that without this intimate connection to a listener, achieved through melodies and harmonies of matchless beauty and seemingly improvised on the spur of the moment, music will ultimately never hold us in its embrace for long.

Chopin never repeats himself

This quality in Chopin is almost surreal. For someone who wrote almost exclusively in miniature forms, hundreds of little pieces, still they are all different. Snowflakes or pebbles, every Etude, Prelude or Nocturne is unique.

Chopin is instantly recognisable

He may not repeat himself, but in every piece we see clearly his fingerprints. It’s a combination DNA cocktail of harmony and melody and texture, and it’s wonderfully intoxicating.

Chopin was the piano’s first true lover

There is great piano music before and certainly after, but no one is more head-over-heels in love with their instrument than Chopin. It is as if you sense his fingers not so much playing as caressing the keys. And every pianist who plays this music is brought into this circle of affection.

Chopin appeals to everyone

I don’t know of any other composer who can attract both the young and the old, the musical newbie and the college professor, those from the East and from the West. Without a trace of populism, Chopin is simply unbelievably, perpetually popular, for over 200 years now, and counting.