Osborne, GA Chamber Works

Modest but likeable discoveries from a one-time favourite of the Victorian era

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: George Alexander Osborne

Genre:

Chamber

Label: RTE Lyric

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 66

Mastering:

Stereo

Catalogue Number: CD103

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(La) Pluie de Perles, Valse brillante George Alexander Osborne, Composer
George Alexander Osborne, Composer
Una Hunt, Piano
Ireland, Fantasia on favourite Irish Airs George Alexander Osborne, Composer
George Alexander Osborne, Composer
Una Hunt, Piano
Sonata for Cello and Piano George Alexander Osborne, Composer
George Alexander Osborne, Composer
Justin Pearson, Cello
Una Hunt, Piano
Isabella Valse George Alexander Osborne, Composer
George Alexander Osborne, Composer
Una Hunt, Piano
Evening Dew, Morceau de salon George Alexander Osborne, Composer
George Alexander Osborne, Composer
Una Hunt, Piano
Fantasia on Balfe's opera 'The Rose of Castille' George Alexander Osborne, Composer
George Alexander Osborne, Composer
Una Hunt, Piano
Piano Trio No 3 George Alexander Osborne, Composer
George Alexander Osborne, Composer
Triantán
Limerick-born George Alexander Osborne (1806-93) studied piano and composition with Frédéric Kalkbrenner in Paris, where he became a close friend of Chopin. During the 1840s, Osborne moved for good to England, winning renown as a virtuoso performer and teacher, before eventually rising to the post of director of both the Royal Academy of Music and Philharmonic Society of London.

Osborne remains best-known (if at all) for his Valse brillante for piano entitled La pluie de perles (‘The Shower of Pearls’), composed in Paris but first published in England in 1848 – and a great favourite of the Victorian salon. However, this enterprising collection also reveals that this figure’s gifts were not exclusively as a miniaturist. Berlioz for one thought Osborne’s piano trios ‘lofty in style and spacious in design’; No 3 in G major displays fluency and craft, allied to a not inconsiderable melodic flair (the first movement’s second subject in particular lingers in the memory) and a lively sense of humour (try the paprika-flavoured finale). Other stand-out items include the Cello Sonata in B flat major that appeared in 1876 (a clarinet transcription followed 16 years later), the charming, aforementioned La pluie de perles, as well as the dashing Fantasia on tunes from Balfe’s opera The Rose of Castille (both date from the same year, 1857).

Sympathetic, generally deft performances and a clean (if occasionally fractionally hard-edged) recording enhance the attractions of this useful release on the RTÉ Lyric FM label. Pianist Una Hunt supplies the highly readable and informative booklet-notes.

Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music. 

Stream on Presto Music | Buy from Presto Music

Gramophone Print

  • Print Edition

From £6.67 / month

Subscribe

Gramophone Digital Club

  • Digital Edition
  • Digital Archive
  • Reviews Database
  • Full website access

From £8.75 / month

Subscribe

                              

If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.