‘[Visions fugitives] Osborne gives the finest recorded performance I know’ (Limelight, Australia)

‘I have no reservations whatsoever about Osborne's performances of Prokofiev's Sarcasms and Visions fugitives. This is playing of total clarity, with real percussive force whilst avoiding any ugliness of tone, rhythmically terse and stylistically very much in keeping with Gilels' or indeed Prokofiev's own surviving accounts. For a modern version of these rarely heard works, Osborne provides powerful and persuasive interpretations, with contrasts clearly brought out between Prokofiev's silken melodies and moments of absolute repose as contrasted with some of the most violent and virtuosic piano writing of the first half of the last century. The recording is fabulous and David Fanning's programme notes are of the high quality which we have come to accept as standard from Hyperion’ (International Record Review)

‘This glorious new recording … is a colossus of a disc and a superlative production from the Hyperion Records team. The depth, breadth and sonic splendour of the disc make it a defining recording of a piano classic. There are many recordings of Pictures, but this one is special … a vintage Osborne performance’ (Sunday Herald, Scotland)

‘Osborne's magisterial performance of 'Pictures' … the experimental Prokofiev pieces are dazzlingly done’ (The Sunday Times)

‘Osborne strides out with healthy determination in the opening Promenade, and then gives a superb performance that shows how atmospheric Musorgsky’s maverick piano writing can be. Rarely have the Catacombs sounded so eerily haunting as they do here; rarely have the technical oddities of the Great Gate of Kiev been harnessed to such imposing effect, architecturally grand but with a range of tone that makes the tumult of bells and the Russian Orthodox incantation fix a vivid, poignant, multifaceted image. In between, Osborne has the sensitivity and inspiration, not to mention the pianistic resources, to bring each of the pictures to life in a way that has palpable perspective and subtle characterisation’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘This all-Russian album is a fine example of Osborne's versatility. He paces Musorgsky's great suite faultlessly, never forcing anything but ratcheting up the excitement notch by notch until it's all discharged in a sumptuous account of the final Great Gate of Kiev … Osborne is suitably laconic and severe in Prokofiev's Sarcasms, gentler and more suggestive in the Visions fugitives; both are beautifully judged’ (The Guardian)

‘Musorgsky’s cycle turns up here, resplendently startling, cobwebs blown off, on his latest release for Hyperion, the classy independent label that Osborne has been recording and winning prizes for since 1998. From the beginning you sense Osborne’s dynamism and fresh imagination: I can’t recall when I last heard the introductory Promenade sound so purposeful. But the best jewels reside in the picture segments themselves … the technical challenges of the cycle’s last movements (Catacombs, Great Gate of Kiev and all) bring plenty of virtuoso excitements, vividly captured in the recording. And the accompanying Russian items are well chosen: first, Prokofiev’s Sarcasms, early exercises in the grotesque, then his generally gentler Visions fugitives—brilliant descriptive titbits, dextrously and poetically displayed … visit this exhibition with Steven Osborne; you’ll enjoy it much more’ (The Times)

‘Throughout this enthralling and warmly recorded performance, Osborne maximises colour and atmosphere, yet manages to achieve a freshness of approach without recourse to idiosyncratic mannerisms. Every movement is brilliantly characterised as a result of Osborne's imaginative approach to keyboard texture … playing that is not only vivid but also beautifully poised’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘An ideal blend of fidelity to the score with a subtle and distinctive rather than overbearing musical personality. In the Musorgsky everything is as musicianly as it is technically immaculate. What tonal delicacy and translucency in ‘Tuileries’, and listen to his finesse in the tremolandos at the end of ‘Con mortuis in lingua mortua’, something barely audible and coming as it were from a great distance. Yet in the more weighty numbers … there is power without brutality so that what so easily can degenerate into a mere uproar is so finely graded that you forget the essentially percussive nature of the writing. In Prokofiev’s Sarcasms, too, there is a leavening of the composer’s violent and leering gesture against the Russian establishment but never at the expense of the title. Again, in the Visions fugitives there is the finest possible sense of ‘things flying past’ with a stunning reminder in the Feroce of No 14 of Osborne’s superb technique. Returning to the Musorgsky (the chief offering in this recital), this may well be the most lucid and musicianly Pictures on record. Hyperion’s sound and presentation are beyond praise’ (Gramophone)

'El bajo Safiulin nos ofrece una interpretación variada, sutil e interiorizada' (Ritmo, Spain)

'This is a fine and enjoyable disc, full of vivid performances and imaginative programming. Under Mark Williams' direction, the choirs make a clear elegant and focused sound, and clarity is very much the watchword in the performances' (Planet Hugill)» More

‘First prize at the most prestigious of Flower Shows’ (Soundscapes, Australia)