OK by Me - A Life in Encores Steven Osborne

• Steven Osborne (b. 1971): OK by Me:
• 1 Osborne: OK by Me 03:45
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Sheep May Safely Graze, BWV 208/IX (Arr. Petri for Piano):
• 2 Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze, BWV 208/IX (Arr. Petri for Piano) 04:17
• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907): Lyric Pieces Book 3, Op. 43:
• 3 Grieg: Lyric Pieces Book 3, Op. 43: No. 1, Butterfly 01:44
• Anatoly Lyadov (1855 - 1914): The Music Box, Op. 32:
• 4 Lyadov: The Music Box, Op. 32 02:14
• Fritz Kreisler (1875 - 1962): Liebesleid, Old Viennese Dance No. 2 (Arr. Rachmaninoff for Piano):
• 5 Kreisler: Liebesleid, Old Viennese Dance No. 2 (Arr. Rachmaninoff for Piano) 04:15
• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): 3 Romances, Op. 28:
• 6 Schumann: 3 Romances, Op. 28: No. 2 in F-Sharp Major. Einfach 03:47
• James Clapperton (b. 1968): Haar:
• 7 Clapperton: Haar 05:27
• Peter Maxwell Davies (1934 - 2016): Farewell to Stromness:
• 8 Maxwell Davies: Farewell to Stromness 04:34
• Clément Doucet (1895 - 1950): Isoldina:
• 9 Doucet: Isoldina 02:16
• George Gershwin (1898 - 1937): 3 Preludes:
• 10 Gershwin: 3 Preludes: No. 1, Allegro ben ritmato e deciso 01:32
• 11 Gershwin: 3 Preludes: No. 2, Andante con moto e poco rubato 03:11
• 12 Gershwin: 3 Preludes: No. 3, Allegro ben ritmato e deciso 01:04
• Samuel Dushkin (1891 - 1976): Sicilienne (Fomerly Attrib. Paradis) [Arr. Osborne for Piano]:
• 13 Dushkin: Sicilienne (Fomerly Attrib. Paradis) [Arr. Osborne for Piano] 02:30
• Robert Schumann: Myrthen, Op. 25:
• 14 Schumann: Myrthen, Op. 25: No. 1, Widmung (Arr. Osborne for Piano) 02:25
• Steven Osborne: Improvisation on the Final Chord of Sir Michael Tippett's The Ice Break:
• 15 Osborne: Improvisation on the Final Chord of Sir Michael Tippett's The Ice Break 02:46
• Keith Jarrett (b. 1945): My Song (Arr. Osborne for Piano):
• 16 Jarrett: My Song (Arr. Osborne for Piano) 07:05
• Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953): 10 Pieces for Piano, Op. 12:
• 17 Prokofiev: 10 Pieces for Piano, Op. 12: No. 7, Prélude 01:52
• Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963): 3 Novelettes, FP 47/173:
• 18 Poulenc: 3 Novelettes, FP 47/173: I. Modéré sans lenteur 02:23
• 19 Poulenc: 3 Novelettes, FP 47/173: II. Très rapide et rythmé 01:29
• 20 Poulenc: 3 Novelettes, FP 47/173: III. Andantino tranquillo (Sur un thème de Manuel de Falla) 02:29
• Meredith Monk (b. 1942): Railroad (Travel Song):
• 21 Monk: Railroad (Travel Song) 01:57
• Joni Mitchell (b. 1943): A Case of You (Arr. Osborne for Piano):
• 22 Mitchell: A Case of You (Arr. Osborne for Piano) 03:23
• Steven Osborne: Improvisation on Keith Jarrett's Vienna Concert:
• 23 Osborne: Improvisation on Keith Jarrett's Vienna Concert 04:00
• Total Runtime 01:10:25

Info for OK by Me - A Life in Encores

On an album of profound significance to this most thoughtful of pianists, Steven Osborne presents an eclectic mix of nostalgia, innovation and personal passion, inspiration and music coming from muses as diverse as Keith Jarrett, life at home in Scotland, and a single chord from a little-known Tippett opera. An absolute delight.

This album is unlike any I’ve made before. When I started making records, the unofficial Hyperion mantra was ‘one, or at most two, composers per disc’. The immersiveness of that approach rather suited me, and I cheerfully learned a lot of repertoire that I would otherwise have probably neglected. But as the years went by, I gradually accumulated random pieces which I really loved, but for which I could find no obvious recorded home. That changed when I realized that I could use them to create a line through my musical life when accompanied by explanatory text. So in this recording, the liner notes are unusually important.

I’ve played most of these pieces as encores, but not all. If I only put my actual encores on this disc, the collection would be a rather sleepy affair. Playing the piano is hard, and when I get to the encore I want to be able to relax, hence almost all my regular encores being on the slow side. There’s another reason—I love the communion with an audience that intimate pieces can create. Introspection is my natural territory, and I’m happy to play to that strength.

Try as I might, I could not create a track order which was coherent both for audio and text, so I’ve allowed the orders to diverge. All the titles below have track numbers included to make them easier to find. With that, let’s begin. ...

"A very personal treasure trove of musical gems, Osborne has, in his own words, “allowed the orders to diverge”, so there is no coherent track order; the pieces simply lead on from one another. Thus, it becomes an album which can be dipped into or listened to as a whole, depending on one’s mood or the time of day." (Frances Wilson, interlude.hk)

Steven Osborne, piano

Steven Osborne OBE
is one of Britain’s most treasured musicians with an immense depth of musicality and exceptional refinement of expression across diverse repertoire be it in Beethoven or Messiaen, Schubert or Ravel, Prokofiev or jazz improvisations. His numerous awards include The Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year, two BBC Music Magazine Awards and two Gramophone Awards.

His residences at London’s Wigmore Hall, Antwerp’s deSingel, the Bath International Music Festival, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra are a testament to the respect he commands. Described by The Observer as “always a player in absolute service to the composer”, Steven Osborne’s 32 recordings on Hyperion have won multiple awards. His two 2021 releases, Prokofiev’s War

Sonatas, and French works for piano duet with Paul Lewis, were both shortlisted for a Gramophone Award.

Steven Osborne’s recitals are publicly and critically acclaimed without exception, and his 22/23 programmes revisit his recent recording repertoire of Beethoven and Rachmaninov interspersed with his own improvisations and another of his much-admired composers, Schubert. Osborne has performed at many of the world’s prestigious venues including the Wiener Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Phillharmonie, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Kennedy Center Washington and is a regular guest at both Lincoln Center and Wigmore Hall.

Concerto performances take Steven Osborne to major orchestras all over the world including recent visits to the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Radio Symphonieorchester Wien, Oslo Philharmonic, Danish National Radio, London Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Aspen Music Festival and Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center with repertoire ranging from Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and Messiaen through to Tippett, Britten and Julian Anderson who dedicated his 2017 Piano Concerto to Steven. The 22/23 season sees him return to the London Philharmonic Orchestra to perform the Tippett Piano Concerto with Ed Gardner and performances with the Stuttgart Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, West Australian Symphony, Adelaide Symphony and the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo.

Recording plans continue with his 33rd release for Hyperion in autumn 2022, the next instalment in his survey of solo works by Debussy. A label artist since 1998, his recordings have accumulated numerous awards in the UK, France, Germany and the USA including two Gramophone Awards, three Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik Awards and a Choc in Classica Magazine in addition to a clutch of Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and Recordings of the Year from The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times and The Sunday Times. His recordings span a wide range of repertoire including Beethoven, Schubert, Debussy, Ravel, Liszt, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Medtner, Messiaen, Britten, Tippett, Crumb and Feldman.

Steven Osborne won first prize at the prestigious Clara Haskil Competition (1991) and the Naumburg International Competition (1997). Born in Scotland he studied with Richard Beauchamp at St. Mary's Music School in Edinburgh and Renna Kellaway at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He is Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Patron of the Lammermuir Festival and in 2014 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music in the 2022 Queen’s New Year Honours.

Booklet for OK by Me - A Life in Encores