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Concerts at Piano Showrooms

Free fringe concerts abound in London, and many are given regularly in Publishers' and Manufacturers' showrooms.

We have reported on several of contemporary music at Schott's music shop and most recently we attended an unusual event at Bluthner's, a premiere and CD launch of composer David Osbon's piano sonatas Number 1, Number 2 & Number 3 which he presented as a planned trilogy to be compared (and not entirely jocularly) with Beethoven's Op 109, 110 & 111.

Osbon, Head of Music at Kingston University, is a versatile composer happy with the classical tradition. He works to commissions and sees himself in a Beethoven/Tippett succession, believing in the continued viability of a three movement sonata format - quick/slow/quick - even complete with an exposition repeat in one sonata-form first movement.

The three were given exemplary performances by Osbon's muse and dedicatee, his pianist wife Jane Beament. They are available on CD [music chamber], but in my view are best taken separately, as they do not have sufficient depth, or variety within unity, to sustain a whole evening's recital or to recommend for purchase.

Peter Grahame Woolf