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. 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.
Sponsored by Andrew and Hilary Walker.
Tickets £34/£27 (concessions £19/£16). Free tickets for under 26s.
POST CONCERT Q&A: Stay for a short informal Q&A with Steven Osborne immediately after the concert.
“Steven Osborne proves that he is the ideal modern-day Beethovenian, utterly at one with the composer” Gramophone Magazine
“The greatest of all piano works” Alfred Brendel, pianist and author, on the ‘Diabelli’ Variations
Artist info: stevenosborne.com
