Fascinating and frank, Stephen Hough’s recently published memoir Enough: Scenes from Childhood chronicles the British pianist and polymath’s journey from infancy to the cusp of his professional career. Apart from being an absorbing tale of musical development, it is also a religious odyssey in which Hough moves through Evangelicalism and Anglicanism, eventually finding a spiritual home in Roman Catholicism. 

Hough not only brings to his engagement with Catholicism the same questing intellect that characterises his artistic endeavours, but also an abundance of creative energy that has found expression in his compositions of sacred music. Displaying an assured technique across a broad range of styles and mediums, Hough’s choral and organ works offer plenty to intrigue the ear and are given enviably accomplished performances here by the London Choral Sinfonia. 

Dating from 2007, the Missa Mirabilis, so named because of Hough’s miraculous escape from a serious car accident, was a commission from Westminster Cathedral and calls forth the full dramatic power of choir and organ, especially in the Credo where elements of doubt jostle with the desire to...