Fauré: Impromptu No. 5 in F sharp minor Op. 102

“His latest album recital is among the most enjoyable. “A sort of musical dessert trolley,” he calls it — a trolley where you want to eat everything in sight...The Fauré selections best display Hough’s connoisseur’s touch...The lighter French spirit surfaces in Hough’s own arrangements of Délibes and Massenet, delivered with delicious wit and grace.” The Times, 31st August 2012 ****

“it's a superlative performance [of Alborada del gracioso] by any standards, including repeated notes that turn me green with envy.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 ***

“personal touches make Hough the artist he is, but I can imagine some musical Francophiles balking at his free interpretation of Fauré’s D flat Nocturne, and more so at his eccentric Debussy (Clair de lune). Yet there are compensations aplenty: Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and Fauré’s F sharp minor Impromptu are glitteringly played.” Sunday Times, 2nd September 2012

“a substantial feast of of masterly pianism...Hough can be too coolly objective at times but in this repertoire, perhaps paradoxically, the expressive simplicity of his playing can make your eyes burn. In Clair de lune and Chaminade's once ubiquitous Automne, now rarely heard, Hough conjures up a heart-catching melancholy that put me in mind of Cherkassy. I can't offer higher praise.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012

“[Hough’s] one of those keyboard polymaths who’s at home in whatever music he chooses to play, invariably casting new light on the familiar in the process. And the better-known items here do delight...But you’ll want this for the rarities...playing and recording are beyond reproach.” The Arts Desk, 6th October 2012

“Volondat makes the most of the built-in contrasts in the Preludes” BBC Music Magazine

“The booklet tells us that Perlemuter recalls playing several of the works included to the composer himself, adding wistfully 'he was very complimentary, but I don't know how much that means, for he had become quite deaf by then and could hardly hear me'. So there can be few people on the platform today with longer or closer ties with this music ... the unaffected simplicity of this artist's approach has an eloquence all its own.” Gramophone Magazine