Steven Osborne's Schubert is single-minded to a magnificent degree. A pianist of a fierce and uncompromising integrity he will have none of easy options, of softening of outlines and a primarily lyrical stance. Schubert many have been the greatest of all song writers but, as Orsborne tells us, he was many things, notably a dramatist on a bold and experimental scale. Osborne's brisk tempo for the great A major Sonata's opening 'Allegro' is underlined by sudden shifts of tempo, always suggesting 'time's winged chariot hurrying near,' Urgent and restless there is little time for a more settled or composed Schubert. His formidable technical command(I recall the scale of his earlier recordings of Beethoven's, 'Hammerklavier' Sonata and the Prokofiev 'War' Sonatas) combines with economical rather than fuller pedalling and if the results can be gaunt you are taken to the heart of an immense and unfolding drama. In the 'Andantino' Osborne creates tension below the surface so that the central volcanic outburst,(for Alfred Brendel the equivalent of a nervous breakdown) while a savage surprise, nonetheless grows out of all that has gone before. The 'Scherzo'; comes as a much needed playful alternative to such intensity but the Rondo finale, while undoubtedly of 'heavenly length,' is tightened by Osborne's characteristic approach, culminating in a thunderous close.
If there is to be relative relaxation in the Six Moments Musicaux they are, once more, presented as a combination of intimacy and high drama. The playing is never warm- hearted in the manner of, say Edwin Fisher's legendary and deeply human recording, and lovers of a greater lyrical impulse may feel short-changed. But the authority is unwavering.
Superbly recorded these performances, most particularly of the Sonata are unsettling, doubtless as Osborne intends, and the pianist's distinctive approach makes you eagerly look forward to the C minor and B flat Sonatas(the rest of that incomparable trilogy). Richard Wigmore's accompanying essay is of special quality and his final quote of Schumann's cheerful view of the darker sides of music(for him Mozart's G minor Symphony is of a 'buoyant, Hellenic charm') shows that even the most perceptive composers can go 'off piste' leaving you aware of the fundamentally subjective nature of all musical commentary.
Bryce Morrison