Steven Osborne
“You could have heard a pin drop. Steven Osborne’s power over the hall was absolute…the atmosphere was spellbound.” Daily Telegraph.
From exhilarating concertos to delicate chamber works; from mainstream Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms to the rarefied worlds of Messiaen, Tippett and Alkan, Steven Osborne is at home with the widest range of styles and his carefully crafted recital programmes and idiomatic approach to contrasting works are both publicly and critically acclaimed.
Concerto performances take Steven to orchestras all over the world including recent performances with the NHK Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Salzburg Mozarteum, Residentie Orkest, Australian Chamber Orchestra and the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hannover. With these orchestras he has enjoyed collaborations with conductors including Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Evgeny Svetlanov, Sir Charles Mackerras, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Andrew Litton, Alan Gilbert, Vassily Sinaisky and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.
In the UK he works regularly with the major orchestras. His concerts are frequently broadcast by the BBC and he performs every year at the Wigmore Hall. He has made six appearances at the Proms, most recently in July 2007, receiving unanimous praise from critics for his performance of the Britten Piano Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov.
Steven is also a renowned recitalist and has performed in many of the world’s prestigious venues including the Konzerthaus Vienna, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Philharmonie Berlin, Musikhalle Hamburg, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Kennedy Center Washington and in December 2005 he made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Steven Osborne begins the 2007/8 season performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Marek Janowski. Later he opens the International Piano Series at London’s Southbank Centre, performs with the Philharmonia conducted by Leif Segerstam, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with Chief Conductor Oleg Caetani and tours Australia with Musica Viva. In celebration of the Messiaen centenary and as a leading interpreter of the composer, Steven performs Turangalîla with the Bergen Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Munich Philharmonic conducted by Christian Thielemann and the Netherlands Philharmonic, Trois Petites Liturgies with the Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, and tours the Quartet for the End of Time with Alban Gerhardt and Lisa Batiashvili.
Steven records regularly with Hyperion. His CD of Messiaen’s complete Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus was met with staggering praise and was nominated for both a Gramophone Award and a Schallplattenpreis in Germany. Spring 2006 saw the release of Shostakovich and Schnittke Cello Sonatas with Alban Gerhardt, and in the summer of that year his new recording of Debussy’s complete Preludes was again selected as Gramophone’s ‘Editor’s Choice’. Other recordings include solo works by Alkan and Liszt Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, both of which were selected as 'Editor’s Choice' in Gramophone, Piano Concertos by Tovey and Mackenzie, solo works by the contemporary Russian composer Kapustin which was also nominated for a Schallplattenpreis, and a CD of solo works by Ravel for Musical Heritage in America. Soon to be released by Steven on Hyperion is a double CD of works by Tippett (November 07) and the Britten Piano Concerto (May 08).
Born in Scotland in 1971, Steven Osborne studied with Richard Beauchamp at St. Mary's Music School in Edinburgh and Renna Kellaway at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He won first prize at both the 1997 Naumburg International Piano Competition (New York) and the 1991 Clara Haskil Competition.
