Steven Osborne, piano
Schubert
Liebesbotschaft (arr. Osborne)
Allegretto in C, D.346
(completed Osborne)
Am Meer (arr. Osborne)
Sonata in C minor, D.958
Beethoven
33
Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op.120
Steven’s recital opens
with his own original perspective on an isolated movement and two late
songs by Franz Schubert from the Schwanengesang collection that was
posthumously published. The Sonata in C minor was composed in the final
year of his life and he played it to friends just seven weeks before his
death. Schubert revered Beethoven, who had died the previous year, and
this piece clearly has the shadow of the great master hanging over it.
Nothing
can adequately prepare the listener for the ‘Diabelli’ Variations.
Considered by legendary pianist Alfred Brendel to be one of the greatest
ever achievements in solo piano writing, this monumental work, acclaimed
as ‘a microcosm of Beethoven’s art’, was composed in answer to a challenge
to create a single variation on a trifling waltz that Beethoven described
as a ‘cobbler’s patch’. From this unpromising material, Beethoven crafted
a magisterial work of just under an hour’s duration that embraces humour
and parody, while maintaining an extraordinary coherence across the whole
of its formidable structure.
"Steven Osborne proves that he is the
ideal modern-day Beethovenian, utterly at one with the composer”
Gramophone Magazine
Sponsored by Andrew and Hilary Walker.
Tickets:
£34/£27 (concessions £19/£16).
POST-CONCERT:
Stay for a short informal Q&A immediately after the concert
-
£34.00 -
17 July 2026 -
135 minutes -
19:30 -
Paxton House
