And then there’s the question of miscarriages. Around one in five confirmed pregnancies end this way, not to mention the countless millions of earlier miscarriages that appear in a tampon or toilet bowl. Human life might be precious to God but it’s often messy, and to destroy the life of a foetus or a mother is not unknown in the ‘Divine Plan’. We might cause unplanned pregnancies but the Creator seems to permit millions of unplanned terminations. It’s not that people who support abortion think that it’s ever a good thing to end a pregnancy; rather they think it’s a worse thing to let it proceed: weighing the balance of rights, weighing the balance of suffering. As a Catholic I have a problem with that logic but I see its logic for someone who doesn’t have religious faith. And I see that any discussion of this issue that doesn’t engage respectfully with that difference of perspective is doomed to fail.
Nevertheless, even without a supernatural perspective, we all draw some lines in the sand. Everyone would accept that an hour-old child wriggling in its mother’s arms should not be killed. But wind back the clock … How many seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks? Where is the line? On which Thursday at 8.53 a.m. does this lump of flesh become a human being? In 1990 the UK law changed the legal limit for an abortion from 28 weeks to 24, and, because of the increasing viability of survival of a foetus at this lower figure, there has been talk of another decrease to 20 weeks. If this is about saving lives more than scoring points (on either side of the debate), this seems to me to be a reasonable progression. One of the uncomfortable facts in the Gosnell case was that if some of the babies he killed (and for which he was convicted of murder) had still been in their mother’s wombs, he would have been legally protected. Can we really allow our law to be as myopic and morally contradictory as that? Can just a few inches and the hiding wall of a stomach make something acceptable that otherwise would be first-degree murder?
No one actually wants to have an abortion, and everyone, from mothers to doctors to politicians, would be happy if the procedure were never carried out. But an extreme case such as Gosnell is not a moment for pro-lifers to start pouring out vitriol on the medical profession or the media to try to change minds and laws. Such an attitude hasn’t worked for fifty years now and in countries where abortion is actually illegal it is still common. So how do we better prevent unwanted pregnancies? How do we admit that science has moved on and that the understanding of the viability of life might require a change of policy? How do we create a safe, loving environment where vulnerable women can be listened to and supported? How do we work in a secular society, in the words of President Bill Clinton, for a time when abortion is ‘safe, legal and rare’? How can we agree to differ and yet move forward?
Why haven’t you written anything about Gosnell? Well, I did. A frightful case like this is a moment when attitudes on both sides could harden, or when both sides could begin to talk.
A light that is so lovely
We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.
This quotation is from the book Walking on Water by the American writer Madeleine L’Engle, who is best known for her science fiction novel A Wrinkle in Time. I came across it by chance and it struck a great, powerful, comforting, lovable bell. ‘A light that is so lovely’ – well, it’s been called the ‘Gospel’, a word meaning ‘good news’. The problem is that the news Christians so often want to tell you seems (at least to this feeble Christian) to be far from good, and, as the twenty-first century hurtles along, hardly news any more either.
L’Engle’s words are reminiscent of a phrase attributed to St Francis of Assisi: ‘Preach the Gospel at all times and occasionally use words.’ Another Francis, born in Argentina, demonstrated the effectiveness of this insight during his papacy. Apart from his oft-(mis-)quoted, ‘Who am I to judge?’, few of his statements are remembered, but people are aware of a ‘light that is so lovely’ in the simplicity of his lifestyle, his practical debunking of papal pomposity (the descendants of a fisherman should not live in palaces) and his straightforwardness and humour.
I’d like to go a little further. It seems to me that if Christians happen to discover this lovely light outside the walls of Christianity, it should be cause for celebration, not for an awkward and embarrassed fudge. Throughout the Gospels the lovely light appears exactly where we least expect to find it: in prostitutes, in sinners, in ‘heretics’ (the Samaritans), in outsiders (coarse shepherds and cynical tax collectors), in the poor, the sick, the abandoned … and it seems to be manifestly absent in the religious types, especially in their leaders. It has no copyright.
And the final clincher occurs in the famous parable of the sheep and the goats. ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me,’ said Christ, describing various works of charity: satisfying the hungry and thirsty, visiting the sick and imprisoned, clothing the naked. What is astonishing about this parable is that those whom Christ praises for their acts of charity were unaware that they were doing anything ‘holy’. They simply responded to human need, and the need of humans for tenderness and love. If we’re going to believe the New Testament, an atheist showing compassion trumps a Christian neglecting to do so. Christ turns religion on its head, but then institutional Christianity so often puts its feet back on the ground again.
Christ’s radical iconoclasm is good news to me and is truly a light so lovely that I want with all my heart to know its source even if I don’t care that much about its name. I’m not arguing for a dismantling of organised faith: it is through the human communities (churches) who hand on and try to live the wisdom (writings, traditions) of the source that we hear the perennial message in the first place. The risk of merely ‘doing our own thing’ can mean that we’re left with nothing but our own thing. And unless we continue to be open to seeing things upside down, we shall probably end up not seeing them the right way up.
One of the Jesuit methods of meditation described in St Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises is to imagine Christ talking to us in concrete situations of time and place. I’m writing this on a plane and the seat next to me is, strangely, not empty any more …
You are loved now, as you are, nothing to change, whatever you’ve done, however little you’ve tried in the past, however hopeless a better future seems – loved because you were created in love and for love.
I did not come into this world to start another religion: and faith is not theological orthodoxy but radical trust – to the end, despite everything, beyond death, even when trust itself seems impossible.
Please don’t take too seriously those who call themselves Christians; they often get my message wrong and their behaviour gets it wronger.
Religion is dead, leaving not so much a corpse as an empty tomb surrounded with a light so lovely, and with blessings as free and as universal as the very air we breathe.
A FINAL REFLECTION
To write is to have read.
More: to speak is to have
Listened, a conversation
With others and with the
Past, reflections frozen into
Words about things which
Flow beyond words.
Seeds flying across my
Garden across many seasons;
Ideas received, embraced,
Rejected, changed …
Always changing. Seeds which
Drift away or which settle
Deep down, which grow then
Scatter, branches shaken, down
Driven across the next fence.
Art’s stage whisper; the perennial
Communication of music and more.
STEPHEN HOUGH: DISCOGRAPHY 1985–2018
Piano Solo
Beethoven, see Stephen Hough in Recital and In the Night
Berg, see Tsontakis: Man of Sorrows; Berg: Piano Sonata; Webern: Variations
Hyperion, 1996
Brahms: Sonata in F minor op. 5 & Four Ballades op. 10
Hyperion, 2001
Britten: Music for one and two pianos
Ronan O’Hora, piano
EMI, 1991 (also included in various Britten collections)
Chopin: The Complete Waltzes
Hyperion, 2011
Chopin: Four Ballades & Four Scherzos
Hyperion, 2004
Chopin: Late Masterpieces
(includes Sonata no. 3 in B minor op. 58)
Hyperion, 2010
Copland, see New York Variations
Corigliano, see New York Variations
Debussy: Piano Music
Hyperion, 2018
Franck: Piano Music
Hyperion, 1997
Grieg: Lyric Pieces
Hyperion, 2015
Hough, see In the Night and Broken Branches
Hummel: Piano Sonatas
Hyperion, 2003
Janáček, see Scriabin & Janáček: Sonatas & Poems
Liszt: Années de pèlerinage – Suisse
Hyperion, 2005
Liszt: Sonata, Ballades & Polonaises
Hyperion, 2000
Liszt: Works for Piano
(2 CDs)
EMI, 1989
Mompou: Piano Music
Hyperion, 1997
A Mozart Album
(original works and transcriptions)
Hyperion, 2008
Schubert: Piano Sonatas
(A minor D. 784; B flat D. 960; C D. 613)
Hyperion, 1999
Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze op. 6 & Fantasie in C op. 17
EMI, 1989
Scriabin & Janáček: Sonatas & Poems
Hyperion, 2015
Strauss: Enoch Arden op. 38
Lucy Rowan, narrator
Musical Heritage Society, 1987
Tsontakis, see New York Variations
Weber, Ben, see New York Variations
In the Night
(mixed recital, including Hough: Sonata no. 2 [Notturno luminoso] and Schumann Carnival op. 9)
Hyperion, 2014
New York Variations
(works by John Corigliano, Aaron Copland, Ben Weber and George Tsontakis)
Hyperion, 1998
The Piano Album
(mixed recital)
EMI, 1993
Russian Piano Music
(mixed recital, including Prokofiev: Sonata no. 6)
ASV, 1985
Stephen Hough’s Dream Album
(mixed recital)
Hyperion, 2018
Stephen Hough’s English Piano Album
(mixed recital)
Hyperion, 2002
Stephen Hough’s French Album
(mixed recital)
Hyperion, 2012
Stephen Hough’s New Piano Album
(mixed recital)
Hyperion, 1999
The Stephen Hough Piano Collection
(sampler)
Hyperion, 2005
Stephen Hough in Recital
(includes Beethoven: Sonata in C minor op. 111)
Hyperion, 2009
Stephen Hough’s Spanish Piano Album
(mixed recital)
Hyperion, 2006
Webern, see Tsontakis: Man of Sorrows; Berg: Piano Sonata; Webern: Variations
Works for Piano and Orchestra
Brahms: Piano Concertos 1 & 2
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Davis, conductor
EMI, 1991
Brahms: The Piano Concertos
Mozarteumorchester Salzburg
Mark Wigglesworth, conductor
Hyperion, 2013
Dvořák & Schumann: Piano Concertos
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Hyperion, 2016
Grieg, see Liszt & Grieg: The Piano Concertos
Hummel: Piano Concertos
English Chamber Orchestra
Bryden Thomson, conductor
Chandos, 1986
Liebermann: Piano Concertos
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Lowell Liebermann, conductor
Hyperion, 1997
Liszt & Grieg: The Piano Concertos
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrew Litton, conductor
Hyperion, 2011
Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos
The Romantic Piano Concerto, vol. 17
(and works for piano and orchestra)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Lawrence Foster, conductor
Hyperion, 1997
Mozart: Piano Concertos no. 21 in C ‘Elvira Madigan’ and no. 9 in E flat
Hallé Orchestra
Bryden Thomson, conductor
EMI, 1985
Rachmaninov: The Piano Concertos
(2 CDs)
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Litton, conductor
Hyperion, 2004
Hollywood Nightmares
(includes Miklós Rózsa: Spellbound Concerto)
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
John Mauceri, conductor
Decca, 1994 [2014]
Saint-Saëns: The Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra
The Romantic Piano Concerto, vol. 27
(2 CDs)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor
Hyperion, 2001
Sauer & Scharwenka: Piano Concertos
The Romantic Piano Concerto, vol. 11
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Lawrence Foster, conductor
Hyperion, 1995
Scharwenka, see Sauer & Scharwenka: Piano Concertos
Schoenberg, see Tsontakis: Man of Sorrows; Berg: Piano Sonata; Webern: Variations
Schumann, see Dvořák & Schumann: Piano Concertos
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos
The Romantic Piano Concerto, vol. 50
(complete works for piano and orchestra; 2 CDs)
Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Hyperion, 2010
Tsontakis: Man of Sorrows; Berg: Piano Sonata; Webern: Variations
(also includes Schoenberg: Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, op. 19)
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Litton, conductor
Hyperion, 2007
Chamber Music with Piano
Beethoven: The Complete Sonatas for Violin & Piano
(4 CDs)
Robert Mann, violin
Nimbus, 1988
Beethoven, see Mozart & Beethoven: Quintets for Piano & Winds
Brahms: Cello Sonatas
Steven Isserlis, cello
Hyperion, 2005
Brahms: Piano Quintet op. 34
(with String Quartet op. 51 no. 2)
Takács Quartet
Hyperion, 2007
Brahms: The Three Sonatas for Violin and Piano
Robert Mann, violin
Music Masters, 1990
Brahms, Schumann, Frühling: Trios
Michael Collins, clarinet
Steven Isserlis, cello
RCA Red Seal, 1999
Franck & Rachmaninov: Cello Sonatas
Steven Isserlis, cello
Hyperion, 2003
Frühling, see Brahms, Schumann, Frühling: Trios
Forgotten Romance: Grieg, Liszt, Rubinstein
Steven Isserlis, cello
RCA Victor Red Seal 1994 [2008]
Grieg, see Mendelssohn, Grieg & Hough: Cello Sonatas
Broken Branches: Compositions by Stephen Hough
Jacques Imbrailo, baritone
Michael Hasel, piccolo
Marion Reinhard, bassoon/contrabassoon
Steven Isserlis, cello
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Gábor Takács-Nagy, conductor
BIS, 2011
Hough, see Mendelssohn, Grieg & Hough: Cello Sonatas
Liszt, see Forgotten Romance: Grieg, Liszt, Rubinstein
Mendelssohn, Grieg & Hough: Cello Sonatas
Steven Isserlis, cello
Hyperion, 2015
Mozart & Beethoven: Quintets for Piano & Winds
Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet
BIS, 2007
Danses et Divertissements
(includes Poulenc: Sextet for piano and wind quintet op. 100)
Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet
BIS, 2009
Rachmaninov, see Franck & Rachmaninov: Cello Sonatas
Rubinstein, see Forgotten Romance: Grieg, Liszt, Rubinstein
Schumann, see Brahms, Schumann, Frühling: Trios
Strauss: Cello Sonata in F, op. 6
(with works for cello and orchestra)
Steven Isserlis, cello
RCA Red Seal, 2001
Children’s Cello
(mixed recital)
Steven Isserlis, cello
Simon Callow, narrator
BIS, 2006
Vocal and Choral Music
Bird Songs at Eventide
(songs from the Edwardian era)
Robert White, tenor
Hyperion, 2003
The Prince Consort: Other Love Songs
(including Stephen Hough’s song cycle, Other Love Songs)
The Prince Consort
Linn, 2011
Hough, see Vaughan Williams: Dona nobis pacem; Hough: Missa Mirabilis
Vaughan Williams: Dona nobis pacem; Hough: Missa Mirabilis
Colorado Symphony Chorus
Colorado Symphony
Andrew Litton, conductor
Hyperion, 2015
Acknowledgements
Many of the reflections in this book germinated from articles that were first published in newspapers (The New York Times, The Times, the Guardian, the Evening Standard) and magazines (Gramophone, Limelight, BBC Music Magazine, New Statesman, the Tablet, Radio Times, International Piano, Prospect). And then I kept a blog on the Telegraph website for over five years, writing over six hundred articles. I combed through these transient musings and reworked some ideas which still interested me. The reflection on ‘Elgar and Catholicism’ was originally a talk for BBC Radio 3, and ‘Is he musical?’ appeared in an anthology of essays published by Bloomsbury, although both have been trimmed here, expanded there. There are probably some other outlets which have slipped my mind and which I should acknowledge. One often forgets as one transforms … but, one hopes, is forgiven.
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