Tippett: Complete Music for Piano (Piano Sonatas 1-4, Piano Concerto)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Martyn Brabbins
Sir Michael Tippett, 1905–1998 | Duration: 140'49
Hyperion Records CDA67461/2
GRAMOPHONE AWARD NOMINEE
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2008
GRAMOPHONE RECOMMENDS
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2009
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE INSTRUMENTAL CHOICE
SUNDAY TIMES CONTEMPORARY CD OF THE YEAR
THE GUARDIAN TOP MUSICAL EVENTS OF 2007
DIAPASON D'OR
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR
A revelatory achievement
— New York Times
The best case for the music I've ever heard
— American Record Guide
Osborne is superb at delineating the characters of the four sonatas and underlining how, in their very different ways, they relate to the piano tradition… Under his fingers the Second Sonata emerges as a gritty and uncompromising masterpiece… His account of the Piano Concerto with Martin Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony is similarly charged
— The Guardian *****
This double album is a monumental achievement… The concerto is realised with a precision and vigour, both soloistic and orchestral, that leave one marvelling anew at its inventiveness… In Osborne's account of the four sonatas, each a big statement, radiance and virtuosity go hand in hand
— The Sunday Times
Osborne's readings on this new recording from Hyperion undoubtedly triumph… Osborne wins through on grounds of spontaneity and bitterness… Hyperion's new release, delightfully crisp and immediate, brings together all of Tippett's piano music under one roof, a feat not hitherto attempted. It succeeds in honouring the music's volatility while salvaging from it the composer's temperate if idiosyncratic sense of Song. Osborne's reflections complement full and illuminating booklet notes by Ian Kemp, who first brought Tippett's piano music to the pianist's attention while studying at Manchester University. This is a set that certainly deserves our warmest embrace
— International Record Review
This splendid double album… Performances that impressively set new standards in these often challenging works … Steven Osborne seems to have the measure of them all. His account of the Concerto, ably supported by Martyn Brabbins's command of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, has all the ecstatic power that Ogdon brought to the first movement, and a like rhythmic ebullience in the finale, but negotiates the contrapuntal thickets of the slow movement with greater delicacy and feeling. He's helped by Hyperion's detailed recording… The Fourth is by far the longest of the sonatas and has previously been the hardest to assimilate. Even so, Osborne's wonderfully elegant unwinding of the contrapuntal lines in the first movement, and his powerful, deeply elegiac reading of the finale, illuminate this fascinating work… more clearly than any version I've previously encountered. This is a very important release
— BBC Music Magazine
This double-disc set from Hyperion is a monumental justifcation for his efforts. In all four sonatas, Osborne reveals a sense of composure that reflects his total absorption in the music… The most exciting revelations are his illuminating accounts of the Third and Fourth Sonatas. Osborne hits the button on all levels. In terms of stature, he pours out Tippett's edifices with radiant vision. But within all that there is a galaxy of detail that hits you with intoxicating freshness and dynamism… These are award-winning performances
— The Scotsman
Tracklisting
Piano Concerto (1953)
Allegro non troppo
Molto lento e tranquillo
Vivace
Fantasia on a theme of Handel (1939)
Piano Sonata No 1 (1936)
Allegro
Andante tranquillo
Presto
Rondo giocoso con moto
Piano Sonata No 2 (1962)
Piano Sonata No 3 (1972)
Allegro
Lento
Allegro energico
Piano Sonata No 4 (1983)
Pulse medium slow; pulse medium fast
Medium fast
Slow pulse
Fast. Throughout
Slow