Steven Osborne

Steven Osborne - Sir Michael Tippett: Piano Concerto, Fantasia on a theme of Handel, Piano Sonatas (2007) 2CD

Sir Michael Tippett: Piano Concerto, Fantasia on a theme of Handel, Piano Sonatas (2007)
Steven Osborne, piano; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Martyn Brabbins, conductor

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 419 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 324 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67461/2 | Time: 02:20:47

What the world needs more of is intelligently planned, stupendously played, and brilliantly recorded collections like this one. These two discs contain all the piano works of Michael Tippett, works that come from every period of the composer's very long life except his very last. It includes the youthful, tuneful Piano Sonata No. 1 written between 1936 and 1938 and revised in 1941, the massive Fantasia on a Theme of Handel from 1941, the exuberant Piano Concerto from 1955, the experimental Piano Sonata No. 2, the gnomic almost Beethovenian Piano Sonata No. 3 from 1973, and the gnarly post-Beethovenian Piano Sonata No. 4. It features a bravura performance by pianist Steven Osborne that makes the best case for all the music, no matter how outré or recherché its harmonic proclivities or rhythmic audacities.

Steven Osborne - Claude Debussy: Preludes (2006)  Music

Posted by Designol at Nov. 27, 2023
Steven Osborne - Claude Debussy: Preludes (2006)

Steven Osborne - Claude Debussy: Préludes (2006)
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue&Log) ~ 191 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 190 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67530 | Time: 01:17:48

Steven Osborne has already made a name for himself in French music with a disc of Alkan and a profoundly moving performance of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards. Here he reaches between those two to tackle one of the pinnacles of the piano repertoire—Debussy’s two books of Préludes. These works have been central to Steven’s repertoire for many years and he brings them to the studio after many public performances and much reflection. He has worked from the most up-to-date Urtext edition which clarifies Debussy’s thought in many places, particularly with regard to tempo relationships within La cathédrale engloutie and a missing bar in Les tierces alternées. In a crowded field Osborne need fear no comparisons: the pianism is exquisite and the interpretations are of a rare depth and subtlety—a recording to rival the very best!
Steven Osborne - Modest Musorgsky: Pictures From an Exhibition; Sergei Prokofiev: Visions Fugitives, Five Sarcasms (2013)

Steven Osborne - Modest Musorgsky: Pictures From an Exhibition;
Sergei Prokofiev: Visions Fugitives, Five Sarcasms (2013)

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 175 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 152 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67896 | Time: 01:05:57

GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER: INSTRUMENTAL AWARD 2013 & BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE RECORDING OF THE MONTH. Steven Osborne has become one of the most valuable pianists recording today. His recent complete Rachmaninov Preludes release was critically acclaimed as the greatest modern version since Ashkenazy. Now he turns to further cornerstones of the Russian repertoire in this recording of Musorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition (a work which has been in Osborne’s concert repertoire for many years), and two sets of Prokofiev’s miniatures. Musorgsky’s masterpiece is one of the most popular programmatic works of the 19th century. Yet it is also a great pianistic challenge, with the spectacular textures of the climactic movement ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’ requiring the highest technical accomplishments.
Steven Osborne - Maurice Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Music (2011) 2CDs

Steven Osborne - Maurice Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Music (2011) 2CDs
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 358 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 328 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA 67731-2 | Time: 02:22:53

A complete survey of Ravel’s piano music is an especially challenging prospect for any pianist. It is not merely that this sublime music frequently demands exceptional, post-Lisztian virtuosity. Beyond such dexterity is the fact that, as Steven Osborne observes in this recording’s booklet, the composer’s fear of repeating himself ensure that the lessons from one work can rarely be transferred to the next. This is not merely the aesthetic change from the nightmarish imagery of Gaspard de la nuit to the elegant neo-classicism of Le tombeau de Couperin. Ravel essentially re-imagined how to write for the piano with each significant work. Osborne is more than up to the task. The contrasting fireworks of the ‘Toccata’ from Le tombeau and ‘Alborada del gracioso’ (Miroirs) are despatched with relish, the piano exploding with power in the latter after a disarmingly impish opening. The Sonatine has a refined insouciance, while the love bestowed upon each note is clear. Then there are the numerous moments of sustained control, such as the shimmering opening pages of Gaspard. Sometimes changes of spirit occur effortlessly within a piece. Having been a model of clarity in the ‘Prelude’ from Le tombeau, Osborne treats the codetta not as a brisk flourish, but as if this particular vision of the 18th century is dissolving beneath his fingers.
Steven Osborne - Debussy: Images · L'Isle Joyeuse · Estampes · Masques · Children's Corner · D'Un Cahier D'Esquisses (2017)

Steven Osborne - Debussy: Images · L'Isle Joyeuse · Estampes · Masques · Children's Corner · D'Un Cahier D'Esquisses (2017)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 213 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 172 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:13:21
Classical | Label: Hyperion Records

Steven Osborne’s unerring command of the elusive ambiguities of Debussy’s piano-writing has already been amply confirmed by his earlier recording of the two books of Préludes; these lustrous new accounts of the Images, Estampes and Children’s Corner are every bit their equal.
Alina Ibragimova, Steven Osborne - Prokofiev: Violin Sonatas, Five Melodies (2014)

Alina Ibragimova, Steven Osborne - Prokofiev: Violin Sonatas, Five Melodies (2014)
EAC | FLAC (tracks+.cue, log) | Covers + Digital Booklet | 01:00:43 | 222 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | Catalog: CDA67514

Sergey Prokofiev's output for violin and piano was quite small, and it would have been limited to the Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor had he not also arranged his Five Songs Without Words and the Flute Sonata in D major, the latter at the request of David Oistrakh. One experiences a degree of discomfort in the Violin Sonata No. 1, which is one of Prokofiev's more unsettling pieces, due in part to its sinister tone and harsh dissonances, but also to its conflicting expressions.
Steven Osborne, Martyn Brabbins - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 19: Tovey & Mackenzie: Piano Concertos (1998)

Steven Osborne, Martyn Brabbins, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 19: Tovey & Mackenzie: Piano Concertos (1998)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & no Log) ~ 265 Mb | Total time: 61:40 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67023 | Recorded: 1998

Two first recordings of concertos by a Scot (Mackenzie) who settled in England as Principal of the Royal Academy of Music and an Englishman (Tovey) who settled in Scotland as a Professor at Edinburgh University's Reid School of Music.
Mackenzie's Scottish Concerto, premiered by no less a man than Paderewski in 1897, is a colourful and entertaining work which uses several Scottish themes in a fundamentally Lisztian design.
Steven Osborne - Olivier Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (2002)

Steven Osborne - Olivier Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (2002)
EAC | FLAC (tracks+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 02:06:36 | 392 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | Catalog: CDA67351/2

Steven Osborne has only twice before been mentioned in the review pages of Gramophone: Andrew Achenbach found his playing ‘outstandingly sensitive and dashing’ in concertos by Mackenzie and Tovey (Hyperion‚ 10/98)‚ while Roger Thomas appreciated his wit in the jazzinflected sonatas of Nikolai Kapustin (Hyperion‚ 8/00). He faces a much tougher job in Messiaen’s Vingt Regards: not only music of exceptional difficulty but a score of which there are seven rival recordings currently available‚ six of them very good indeed.
Steven Osborne - Claude Debussy: Études & Pour le piano (2023)

Steven Osborne - Claude Debussy: Études & Pour le piano (2023)
XLD | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 205 Mb | Total time: 67:48 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA68409 | Recorded: 2022

Debussy may have stipulated ‘mains formidables’ as the requirement for pianists tackling his Études, but they need a lot more besides: it’s clear from these magisterial performances that Steven Osborne’s ‘formidable hands’ are always at the service of a profound musical intelligence.
Paul Lewis, Steven Osborne - French Duets: Fauré, Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky (2021)

Paul Lewis, Steven Osborne - French Duets: Fauré, Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky (2021)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 194 Mb | Total time: 68:28 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA68329 | Recorded: 2020

In a true meeting of musical minds, the two superb pianists team up once again for a delectable programme of miniatures by Fauré, Poulenc, Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel. A bewitching programme of music often associated with childhood, including favourites by Fauré, Ravel and Debussy; works which amply reward the care lavished on them by Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne in these exquisite accounts.