Stephen Hough & Viano Quartet

Stephen Hough is one of today’s most unusual musicians. A recognised polymath, his artistic talents range from his virtuoso pianism to writing, painting and, increasingly, composing.

Tonight, he joins forces with the award-winning Viano Quartet from New York, which is currently in residence at the The Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

The programme centres on the UK premiere of Hough’s Piano Quintet ‘Les noces rouges’ (The Red Wedding), based on a terrifying episode from Willa Cather’s novel My Ántonia (1918).

Here, his colourful writing runs the gamut from a joyous evocation of young love and a rambunctious wedding feast to a frenzied, nightmarish sleigh ride. After he and the Viano Quartet gave its world premiere at Lincoln Center in November 2024, The Times called it ‘one of the wildest pieces he’s ever written’.

The concert opens with Mozart’s lyrical and high-spirited String Quartet in B flat, K.458. And it concludes with Dvorák’s Piano Quintet No.2, blending Czech folk music’s soulful harmonies and energetic dance rhythms with the composer’s sunniest melodic inspirations.