Events

Schubert Sonata for Piano no. 21 in B flat major, D 960

Interval

Marion Bauer From the New Hampshire Woods op. 12 no. 1 White Birches
Meredith Monk Railroad (Travel Song)
Frederic Rzewski ‘Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues’ from Four North American Ballads
Steven Osborne Improvisation
Keith Jarrett (trans. Osborne) My Song
Bill Evans (trans. Osborne) I Loves You Porgy
Oscar Peterson (trans. Osborne) Indiana

Treasured at home and sought after internationally, Scottish pianist Steven Osborne has performed in the world’s great concert halls and is a regular at Wigmore Hall and in the BBC Proms. Described as thoughtful, curious, with musical insight and integrity, he was awarded the OBE for Services to Music in the Queen’s New Year Honours 2022.

A longtime favourite of SJE Arts Piano Series, Steven’s last concert was an epic pairing of Rachmaninov’s Piano Sonatas nos. 1 and 2. This time, he gives us Schubert’s final, luminous B flat Piano Sonata, the one with ominously repeated bass notes and an extraordinarily life affirming end.

Post interval comes the surprise. Steven has often spoken about his love of jazz and his admiration for the late jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, and he has been known to slip in a Jarrett improvisation as an encore at a classical concert. Now he is taking us with him for the full jazz/improvisation experience. Please join us for the ride!

Steven Osborne performed a similar classical/jazz programme at Wigmore Hall on 12 March 2024. Here is some of the interview that he gave beforehand  (the full interview can be found on Maestro Arts):

How does that play out in this Wigmore programme?
‘….The second half is jazz-inspired and includes Frederic Rzewski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, which I’ve wanted to play for a long time. I loved it when I heard it in college but have never found the right context for playing it. It’s an anarchic, experimental piece, with a lot of tone clusters, which you have to play with your forearms and fists. It copies the machinery of a cotton mill. There’s a ghostly blues in the middle, which gets flattened by the machinery towards the end. It’s an extraordinary concept for a piece….’

You’ll be performing your own improvisations at Wigmore Hall – what does that feel like?
‘The first time I improvised it was thrilling. I was influenced by Keith Jarrett and his unplanned concerts. What happens when you sit down in front of an audience with a completely blank page and you have to play something? I found that something actually happened, and it felt like it was mine – honest and beautiful in its way. The sense of silence becomes very heightened when you don’t know what’s going to happen and there can be real pleasure if you relax into it….’

Steven Osborne performs Ravel Piano Concertos with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra