Messiaen's pianistic summit scaled by Steven Osborne

By Mark Valencia, 07 November 2019

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“a single, colossal entity whose vaults and windows, transepts and side aisles all coalesced”

Reviewed at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London on 6 November 2019

Messiaen, Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus

Steven Osborne, Piano

Turangalîla underwhelms at the Southbank’s Multitudes festival

Roy Westbrook, 23rd April

Serious music ill-matched by filmic limitations as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra tackles Messiaen’s epic “symphony” as part of the Southbank’s cross-genre festival.

**111

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO stir up swelling seas with Scheherazade

Robert Gainer, 4th March

In the CBSO Benevolent Fund concert, the orchestra tells the timeless story, set in Persia, of Scheherazade who, through her storytelling, brings about peace.

****1

Heft and delicacy: Philharmonia makes Lammermuir Festival debut

Simon Thompson, 10th September

Bringing the Philharmonia is the most ambitious thing the Lammermuir Festival has ever done, yet it felt like a natural next step for a festival that's growing in stature.

****1

Gardner and the LPO scale Alpine heights with majestic ease

Nick Boston, 21st February

Majestic Strauss and effortless Grieg from Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

****1

Exquisite Mozart from Steven Osborne with the Ulster Orchestra

Leighton Jones, 14th February

Championing British musicm the Ulster Orchestra also performs a seldom heard work by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

***11

The stars shine brightly: Morlot conducts Messiaen in Manchester

Leighton Jones, 12th December

In a rare performance of Des Canyons aux étoiles, Ludovic Morlot and Steven Osborne plunge the depths of Utah’s canyons and ascend to celestial plains.

*****

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.

Vingt Regards de l’enfant Jésus: Messiaen's pianistic summit scaled by Steven Osborne