International Piano Series: Steven Osborne

An opportunity to hear Steven Osborne's critically acclaimed performance of Messiaen's passionately spiritual meditations Vingt Regards sur L'enfant Jesus. Osborne's recording of this great piano work for Hyperion earned an ecstatic reception, with critics celebrating its 'towering authority and technical achievement' (Gramophone), as well as described it as 'outstanding' (The Independent) and 'awe-inspiring' (The Sunday Times). A brilliant summation of Messiaen's mystical and highly-influential compositional style, Vingt Regards sur L'enfant Jesus is a cycle of 20 pieces reflecting the ecstatic and radiant nature of the composer's own profound faith. The work makes immense technical demands upon its performer, who must create on the piano sonorities resembling an organ or a full orchestra, and whose intellectual grasp of Messiaen's mathematical rhythms must be as secure as his speed, accuracy and versatility. 'Osborne's revelatory performance is a blinding tour de force of interpretive and pianistic incandescence.' (Classic FM Magazine).