Steven Osborne,  piano 

Sun 18th May 

7:00 pm

St James Church

Doors open at 6.15pm

The performance will end at approx. 8.40pm

Dance, Jazz, Improvisation

SCHUMANN: Arabesque in C major op.18

DEBUSSY: Selection from Children's Corner Suite

DEBUSSY: Deux Arabesques

SCHUMANN:  Kinderszenen op.15

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BAUER: From the New Hampshire Woods op.12 no.1. White Birches

MONK, Meredith: Railroad (Travel Song)

RZEWSKI: "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" from Four North

American Ballads for Piano

OSBORNE, Steven: Improvisation

JARRETT, Keith (trans. Osborne): My Song

EVANS, Bill (trans. Osborne): I Loves You Porgy

PETERSON, Oscar (trans. Osborne): Indiana

Tickets   £40 | £35 | £30 | £25 | £10 | 

U25s £1  

Those of us who have enjoyed Steven's performances in Campden over the years will have been beguiled by his choice of jazz encores. This time he brings jazz to the centre stage with a  programme featuring a first half of classical favourites inspired by childhood and dance, and a second half devoted to his love and mastery of jazz. 

Steven says: 

"The first half has a sort of symmetry, with Schumann’s Arabeske op.18, Debussy’s Children’s Corner and Two Arabesques, and Schumann’s Kinderszenen.

The second half is jazz-inspired and includes Frederic Rzewski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, which I’ve wanted to play for a long time. I loved it when I heard it in college but have never found the right context for playing it. It’s an anarchic, experimental piece, with a lot of tone clusters, which you have to play with your forearms and fists. It copies the machinery of a cotton mill. There’s a ghostly blues in the middle, which gets flattened by the machinery towards the end. It’s an extraordinary concept for a piece

I’m also playing my own transcriptions of three jazz performances, by Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson. When I was at music college I was obsessed with Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans. I listened to a lot of jazz and mucked around with the style. I wouldn’t call myself a jazz pianist, though – I’m a dilettante. I can give an impression of the style, improvising for a little while, but I quickly run out of ideas."