Franck, C: Les Plaintes d'une poupée M20 (1865)

“Hough has a dream-ticket combination of virtues – astonishing agility, a faultless ear for texture, fine-tuned stylistic sensibility and an exceptional understanding of harmonic and structural tensions. He acknowledges all Franck's nuances, notated and implied, without ever disturbing the broader flow; he gives full rein to the heroic Lisztian cascades, without ever tipping over into melodrama. The only hint of a nit to be picked would be that the fortissimo arpeggiations in the 'Choral' don't ring as resonantly as they might. One can't imagine the calm at the end of the 'Aria' being better judged.
In their very different ways the almost comical bravura of the Grand caprice and the salon charm of the Danse lente and Les plaintes d'une poupée are extremely difficult to bring off with success. Yet anyone who has followed Hough's recording career will know that this sort of thing is meat and drink to him. As for his own transcription of the A minor Chorale, the unavoidable adjective is 'awesome'.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Ashley Wass, winner of the World Piano Competition in London two years ago, is a thoroughly persuasive advocate of this music...[his] command of the music's intellectual and expressive thrust makes for compelling listening” Daily Telegraph