Not every pianist has a Richard Rodgers waltz snuggling up to a Rachmaninov Concerto on his playlist, but such provocative eclecticism is Stephen Hough's calling card. His new French Album is a musical Tour de France, its 17 tasty selections travelling byways rather than highways, uncovering treasures along the way.
For many, the only familiar offerings will an intriguingly nervy Alborada del gracioso by Ravel and the dream-laden five minutes of Debussy's Clair de Lune.
As it happens, the Debussy, along with Hough's beautifully etched transcription of Delibes' Pizzicati, is like a refreshing sorbet before a spectacular finale - a striding, swaggering ride through a Liszt Fantasy on themes from Halevy's long-forgotten opera, La Juive.
Hough had already opened the set with spectacle, an Alfred Cortot transcription of the famous Bach Toccata and Fugue. It's brilliant, if less immediately Gallic than Cortot's take on a Bach Arioso, which Hough transforms into the mould of a Chopin Nocturne.
The task of representing Faure with just four pieces has Hough gliding through the almost bluesy chromaticism of an Improvisation, and skyboarding the slippery scales of an F sharp minor Impromptu - both of which make one eager to hear more Faure from this man.
