Steven Osborne gives vibrant, dynamic and searching readings of Debussy’s Études in technically immaculate performances that also yield maximum musical potential. Each one of the twelve is here a revelation as to the expression and suggestion that is embedded into the respective demands of the pianistic disciplines that the composer explores. Pour le piano is also compelling, as extrovert as it needs to be in the first movement where a refinement of touch also prevails, a quality to the fore in the ‘Sarabande’, deeply felt by Osborne. Of the remaining pieces, Berceuse héroïque is dark and distant, emotions veiled, whereas La plus que lente is an afternoon-tea salon charmer. Hyperion CDA68409 is beautifully recorded and annotated perspicaciously.

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