FOLLOWING on from his recording of Beethoven piano concertos, Stephen Hough’s new work is a concept album in which themes of life and death are explored in an  intellectual master class from one the Britain's finest pianists and abstract painting. As Hough is keen to point out, the image of a dead man hanging on a cross is arguably the foundational icon of Western culture.

Works for solo piano by JS Bach, Franz Liszt, Ferruccio Busoni, Frederic Chopin and Hough’s own compositions are the basis for this recital recording made at St Silas the Martyr Church in Kentish Town in London.

The album opens with JS Bach’s Chaconne from Partita No 2 in D minor, arranged by the Italian composer, editor and writer Busoni. Thickly textured, bell-like patterns give the work a monumental feel that Hough explores with a contrasting and at times delicate approach.