The Queen’s Erard
Stephen Hough on playing a priceless piano
I played the Erard a few years ago on a BBC
Radio 3 programme from Buckingham Palace. When Victoria and Albert’s 200th anniversary came onto the horizon I suggested that my manager approach the BBC Proms about featuring the piano in 2019. This Prom is the result, and it’s a wonderful way to celebrate an extraordinary musical marriage.
No, the piano isn’t turbocharged in terms of volume like a modern piano, but I think the sound will come across beautifully in the Albert Hall: there’s often a special clarity about period instruments. And Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto was an obvious thing to play, given the close connection the composer had with Victoria and Albert – he even arranged one of his Songs Without Words for them to play as a duet. As for the five songs composed by Albert which Alessandro Fisher (see p13) and I are performing in the second half, they show the Prince Consort was capable of writing beautiful lieder in the Schubert tradition. Stephen Hough performs Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the
OAE at Prom 40, 16 August