Sir Stephen Hough

Sir Stephen Hough at Folly Theater

Sir Stephen Hough builds his Kansas City recital around sudden turns of mood. Schubert's introspection, Stockhausen's compact experiments and Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata bring strikingly different moods to the same piano program. That range keeps January 30 from settling into easy categorization—Friends of Chamber Music has programmed a MacArthur Fellow equally comfortable with Brahms's compressed lyricism and Schoenberg's Op. 19 sketches, music that fits a lot of emotion into very few bars.

Hough is a composer as well as a pianist, and his Mary Poppins Suite arrangement adds playful familiarity to the program. Schumann's Carnaval brings its character pieces, while Beethoven's Op. 119 No. 10 offers a miniature beside the larger drama of the Waldstein Sonata. That contrast is part of the fun: one performer moving among concise musical ideas and works with room to unfold, giving each its own character.

Hough is a MacArthur Fellow, pianist, composer and writer, and that breadth makes this solo recital especially appealing. His program sets poetic miniatures against larger piano drama without asking you to choose between them. Friends of Chamber Music presents the recital at Kansas City's Folly Theater, where the shifts among Schubert, Beethoven and Hough's own arrangement give listeners plenty to discover. Whether the draw is Schumann's changing characters or the surprise of Mary Poppins at the keyboard, find tickets for Hough's January 30 performance.