Your recitals of Messiaen’s Vingt regards, which you first gave in the RNCM’s Glories of the Keyboard Festival, have achieved critical acclaim at a number of venues. How does a pianist approach the preparation of such a gargantuan work?

Playing the Vingt regards for the first time was an amazing experience: there was a mixture of jubilation and fear, the fear of wondering if I would manage to get through the performance physically, since I chose to perform it as a complete cycle, without giving either the audience or myself the chance of being able to relax during a break. It seemed to me that to do so would have weakened the sense of progression and taken away from the force of the final climax. I have performed it a good six or seven times since then, and with each performance I have been able to relax more and more. It still requires an enormous amount of concentration from the performer, but apart from sorting out tempos and characters, I find it best not to think too much about the music beforehand, because that helps the performance feel all the more spontaneous.

There are movements afoot for you to release a recording of Vingt regards with Hyperion. Since several performances are already commercially available, what do you hope to bring to it that other artists haven’t?

I have to admit that the only other recording I have heard was that made in the 1960s by John Ogden. It might be quirky in places, but it does have quite a few moments of utter genius. However, I can’t comment on what others have done. Nevertheless, I love it very deeply and I think that when a performer has that passion for a work, then communicating it shouldn’t be a difficult problem. There are going to be pitfalls, however, since the recording process can be so impersonal: one becomes so focussed in getting the details right, that to ignore other aspects, such as developing a real sense of sweep and emotion, is easy. That can result can result in the performance sounding quite boring and straight-jacketed. At the moment, I am thinking of ways in which to approach Vingt regards so that I can get a feeling of spontaneity and cohesion. I would prefer to record it in two halves and then go back and patch things in that haven’t quite worked, but that might not be terribly practical.

What about other projects?

Although I play a lot of chamber music and work particularly closely with the cellist Alban Gerhardt, I am mainly working hard on solo repertoire for future performances. I like to think that I have fairly catholic tastes and, as a result, am happy to play anything. At the moment, there are a number of things that I am preparing for solo concerts and I have also have a performance of Prokofiev’s fifth piano concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to prepare for April. I’m lucky to be so busy – there are a lot of opportunities for me to play some wonderful music. What more could anyone want?

Click here to see a Steven Osborne’s forthcoming concert schedule.