Steven Osborne, pianist

Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in music and who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?

Since I was small I’ve been obsessed with the piano and with music, so my pursuing a career in music isn’t down to anyone else, but many people have helped me along the way. All my piano teachers, especially Richard Beauchamp and Renna Kellaway, my professor at university, Ian Kemp, the violinist Bobby Mann who was something of a guru… All of them broadened my horizons in different ways.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

Learning to work at a manageable pace probably. I love learning repertoire but it can be hard to judge how much to take on, especially when a piece comes up that I’ve wanted to do for ages. 20 years ago I had to take a few months off after my brain started to shut down from the effort of learning a huge amount of repertoire. It was an extremely unpleasant experience, but it taught me a little more respect for my limits.

Of which performances/recordings are you most proud?

That’s really hard to answer. At the time, I have been proud of almost all my recordings. Now if I listen back (which I rarely do), I often feel dissatisfied because my instincts have moved on. One I remain proud of is the Feldman/Crumb recording. It’s hard music to capture and I’m pleased with how it came out. It’s hard to single out concerts. I just remember random occurrences of people telling me how the music has related to something happening in their personal lives, and it is always satisfying and touching to know you’ve helped someone in the midst of something difficult.

Which particular works/composers do you think you perform best?

I’m not the person to say that! But the composers I feel most at home with are probably Beethoven, Schubert and Messiaen.

How do you make your repertoire choices from season to season?

If I have a recording coming up, it’s those works. Otherwise it’s pretty random – I start with a piece or pieces I’m burning to do and build programmes from there.

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

Wigmore Hall for sure – I first played there for a scholarship audition aged 10 and I just couldn’t believe the sound of the hall and the piano. Unforgettable.

What do you do off stage that provides inspiration on stage?

That’s an excellent question, but a hard one to answer. If I take the meaning narrowly – like thinking about pre-concert routine – then giving myself mental space and thinking about the relationship between myself and the audience generally helps me get in the right headspace. More broadly, pretty much everything in one’s life has some kind of impact on how one plays – for good or ill. I guess if you pare it down to its essentials, everything which develops one’s empathy and curiosity helps one’s performing, and vice versa.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

I guess one performance playing Messiaen’s Vingt Regards at the Wigmore Hall when I realised about 90 minutes in that I could hardly play a wrong note if I tried. I was completely at ease, without any mental clutter whatsoever. It was almost like watching myself from the outside. It was a remarkable experience.

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

Connecting to the listeners, drawing them in, that’s the most fundamental thing for me. Without that, little can be communicated.

What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?

The most efficient way is surely to start with school children, but it’s very difficult when the school system has so little money and individual instrumental tuition is so sidelined. But I have a headteacher friend who mandates that every pupil in her school learns an instrument, so it is possible.

What’s the one thing in the music industry we’re not talking about which you think we should be?

I’m not sure this is about the industry as such, but one sacred cow I would love to slaughter is the very prevalent idea that it’s the musicians job to serve the musical score. I think it’s our job to love the music, which is quite a different thing. If service is the first imperative then there’s a danger one simply follows all the markings, even if you don’t quite believe in some of them. If love is the main motivator, it becomes very painful to go against your instincts and so there’s a much more fruitful negotiation between performer and written score, I think.

What advice would you give to young or aspiring musicians?

I think the single most important thing for a musician is their pleasure in playing. That can easily get damaged by bad/dogmatic teaching, self-doubt, and many other things. Guard that pleasure jealously! Consider changing teacher if they suck the joy out of playing. Your ‘immature’ ideas are far more valuable than copying someone else’s ‘more mature’ ideas. There is no substitute for this kind of honesty in performance – that’s what draws an audience in, I believe. If we don’t value our instincts when they are immature, then we don’t give them the opportunity to mature as we get older. Instead, we remain pretending to be someone else.

What’s next? Where would you like to be in 10 years?

Being able to play semi-decent jazz. I’ve started to work on it more diligently recently.

Steven Osborne appears at this year’s Oxford Piano Festival which runs from 25 July to 2 August. Find out more

stevenosborne.com