on 10 March 2024

Photographs by David Hogg of Horizon Imaging.

This recital by Steven Osborne was like discovering the piano all over again. During the entire evening he had the piano lid tightly shut and the music stand flatly laid. Yet, the colours of the tones, sounds and textures that came out of it were just magical. And nothing like anything that we have heard before.

On Sunday evening we had the privilege of listening to one of the most prominent British pianists, Steven Osborne. On these occasions, when our tickets sell out like hot cakes, people are naturally very keen to validate his reputation and hear for themselves what it is that sets him apart from hundreds of other performers. His biography describes him as a musician with “immense depth of musicality and exceptional refinement of expression across a diverse repertoire”. Every word of it is accurate! On BBC Radio 3 In Tune the following day, Sean Rafferty described Steven as “the musician who brings his own edge to music”, and I completely agree with this statement. His performance at Breinton totally justified his reputation and it was a true privilege to hear him up close in an intimate setting.

I feel it is almost useless to discuss Steven’s talent and technical skill, because it was so clearly all there. What he offered was way beyond that, and much deeper. The first half of the programme, of Schumann and Debussy, was dreamy, heart-warming yet bitter sweet at times, and quite nostalgic. From the barely audible notes to sharp staccato, every sound and chord was portraited with meticulous detail and care. Every singing line was gorgeously refined and accompanied with beautiful decorative phrases; to me, the warm tone of his left hand base notes, which I cannot describe adequately enough, was very special, causing silent explosions of senses and feelings.

The second half saw a complete change in style and sound world; it was dynamic, earth-shattering, innovative and inspiring. Meredith Monk’s minimalistic Rail Road depicted the uniqueness of America’s trains in a direct, simplistic and imagistic way (and reminded us both of the sounds in the night from our visit to California just a few nights before). Following this was the gripping storytelling of metallic machines, vibrations, and hard labor, in the imagination-provoking performance of Winnsboro Cotton Mills Blues. All this was expressed by Steven’s amazing sound making; it was hard to believe this was coming from the same instrument (or musician!) that we had heard in the the first half. The sudden switch, at the end of the piece, to the music of the blues, as the heavy-duty machinery faded away, was truly striking.

Improvisation and jazz followed, which made the excited audience even more ecstatic. I am not knowledgeable enough to comment on any of the works, but we certainly felt his abundant love for jazz, and his wealth of knowledge and respect for the composer performers whom he had painstakingly transcribed from original recordings. Again, Steven’s acutely focused sound-world was heavenly and that alone was already very satisfying.

In addition to the music and performance, Steven was extremely personable, approachable and inspiring. He initiated a question-and-answer session at the end of the performance, which was eagerly received by our audience. All in all, the whole evening was an unprecedented level of enjoyment.

PS Steven thought our piano was “gorgeous” and the piano replied that the feelings were mutual!