Many happy returns! Steven Osborne’s 50th birthday concert

By Zoltán Szabó, 15 March 2021

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“Intimacy on a global scale!”

Reviewed at Wigmore Hall, London on 12 March 2021

Schubert, Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock), (W. Müller u. H. v. Chézy), D.965

Schubert, Fantasia for piano 4 hands in F minor, D.940

Ravel, Miroirs: La Vallée des cloches

Ravel, Piano Trio in A minor

Ailish Tynan, Soprano

Jean Johnson, Clarinet

Alina Ibragimova, Violin

Bjørg Lewis, Cello

Paul Lewis, Piano

Steven Osborne, Piano

Paul Lewis balances delicacy with power in understated RLPO Beethoven

Glyn Mon Hughes, 12th March

Understatement is key in Paul Lewis' interpretation of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Adam Hickox.

***11

Sprechstimme and yodelling: Schubert’s birthday bash at Wigmore Hall

Mark Pullinger, 31st January

A double-header celebrates Schubert featuring Allan Clayton and Paul Lewis in Winterreise and the Austrian folk/rock band The Erllkings.

****1

Denève, Lewis and the Netherlands Radio Phil in Utrecht

Laurence Vittes, 23rd January

At TivoliVredenburg’s Grote Zaal: a program of Beethoven, Liszt, and Schumann that, intentionally or not, invited reflection on long-range musical continuity.

***11

Concerto Budapest delivers Beethoven with high-octane fire in Dublin

Andrew Larkin, 29th November

András Keller’s orchestra offers intensity, finesse and sheer dramatic sweep, from Tchaikovsky’s infernal tragedy to a Beethoven Fifth Symphony driven with exhilarating momentum.

****1

Magnificent Beethoven and Sibelius, intriguing Nørgård in Manchester

Peter Connors, 22nd March

Per Nørgård’s Eighth Symphony is the unusual opener in a programme of magnificent Beethoven and Sibelius from the BBC Philharmonic, Paul Lewis and John Storgårds at the Bridgewater Hall.

****1

Something close to perfection: Lewis, Storgårds and the BBC Phil

Phil Parker, 24th January

Though a perfect concert is hard to define, you know when you’ve attended one – and Beethoven and Shostakovich from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra provide the proof.

*****

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Zoltán Szabó

Zoltán Szabó is a cellist and musicologist. Having migrated from his native Hungary to Australia in 1985, he worked with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Sydney until 1991, when he became Principal Cello with Opera Australia. In 2017, he was awarded with a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD). Currently, he is teaching music history and musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Many happy returns! Steven Osborne’s 50th birthday concert at Wigmore Hall