Beethoven Steven Osborne
Op 109, 110 and 111 all appear on the recording
Steven Osborne has released Beethoven's last three Piano Sonatas - Op 109, 110 and 111 on Hyperion Records.
The release comes a month after Steven’s performances of the three works in Leeds and London’s LSO St Luke’s, both part of this year’s Leeds International Music Festival. His next London appearance will be on 11 May at the Wigmore Hall playing music by Schumann, Brahms, Falla, Debussy and Ravel with friend and long-time collaborator Alban Gerhardt.
Giving a nod to next season’s celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the two recitals and recording release will be followed by performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 later this summer when Steven travels to New Zealand to tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Carlos Kalmar. During the anniversary season, Steven will play the last three piano sonatas extensively around the world including in New York where his recital is a feature of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series.
Of his performance of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas at the Wigmore Hall two years ago, The Guardian wrote, “But then everything in the recital conveyed the sense of thoughtfulness, without ever seeming previous or contrived... Some of Osborne’s playing was unflinchingly powerful – the close of Op. 110 was shattering, the climaxes of Op. 111’s set of variations ecstatically intense... nothing was done just for effect; this was a pianist responding to some of the greatest piano music ever written as honestly as he could.”