4 Thursday, January 26, 2017 Island Beat Hawaii Tribune-Herald Scottish pianist to perform Schubert, Beethoven Concert pianists are faced with daunting challenges throughout their career, including years of solitary training, ferocious competition, the physical stamina needed to perform for up to two hours, the mental capacity to remember volumes of music and the psychological fortitude to cope with sitting alone on stage. Among them is Scottish pianist Steven Osborne, who will perform the late sonatas of Schubert (D. 960) and Beethoven (Op. 110 and 111) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 31) at the UH-Hilo Performing Arts Center, seems more grounded than most. Osborne is generally regarded as the preeminent British pianist of his generation and one of the greatest in the world. However, his stage manner is plain and calm. His playing is profound, lucid, sensitive and powerful when needed, but his demeanor gives nothing away. And indeed he does not feel special. As he modestly puts it, “You’re on stage, everyone is clapping for you, and yet all you are doing is sharing something human and universal.” “I’ve always had a sense that you shouldn’t get too big for your boots — maybe it’s a Scottish Protestant thing. I feel like if you buy into that idea of being special, you just start looking for applause. Decisions stop being musical decisions, and you destroy what you are actually trying to do.” Osborne began piano lessons at the age of 4. There was a piano in the house and he always felt drawn to it. “I didn’t have any thoughts about career. I just loved playing piano,” he said. “I’d wake up very early and I would go straight downstairs and start playing the piano at 4:30 in the morning. Poor dad would come down and tell me to stop. He put a big sign on the piano saying ‘please don’t play the piano before 7:30.’” Osborne’s career took flight in the mid-1990s when he won first prize at the Naumburg International Competition (New York) and Clara Haskil (Switzerland). He last performed in Hilo in 1997. Osborne has chosen a profound and challenging program for his Hilo concert. Franz Schubert’s last sonata is generally considered his greatest achievement in the form and one of the greatest of the classical-romantic sonatas. And nearly 200 years after they were composed, Beethoven’s final sonatas remain a Mount Everest for pianists, offering one of the supreme challenges to a pianist’s skill, imagination and understanding. Tickets for Tuesday’s concert are $25 (general admission), $20 (60 and older), and $10 (students) and are available at The Most Irresistible Shop, Music Exchange and the UH-Hilo Performing Arts Center box office. Remaining tickets will be available at the door after 6:45 p.m. Osborne also will lead a master class for East Hawaii piano students from 4-6 p.m. Monday (Jan. 30) at Hilo’s First United Protestant Church. The public is invited. His wife, Jean Johnson, a professional clarinetist, will meet with band students at Kamehameha Schools that morning. Courtesy photo Pianist Steven Osborne will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Osborne also will lead a master class for East Hawaii piano students from 4-6 p.m. Monday (Jan. 30) at Hilo’s First United Protestant Church. The public is invited. His wife, Jean Johnson, a professional clarinetist, will meet with band students at Kamehameha Schools that morning.
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