Jorge Federico Osorio Plays Last Piano Works of Schubert and Brahms on New Album From Cedille Records

Jorge Federico Osorio pairs Schubert's final solo piano works with those by Brahms on his seventh and newest Cedille Records album. In doing so, the Mexican-born, European-trained pianist focuses on two composers who have figured prominently in his concert career.

Final Thoughts - The Last Piano Works of Schubert & Brahms is Osorio's first recording of any music by Schubert, whose Sonata in A Major, D. 959, and Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960, bookend the program. Final Thoughts also offers Osorio's first recordings of Brahms's Three Intermezzos, Op. 117, and Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118. In addition, Osorio revisits Brahms's Seven Fantasies, Op. 116, and Four Piano Pieces, Op. 119, which he recorded nearly two decades ago on another label, to enthusiastic reviews.

Final Thoughts, available May 12, is a two-disc set priced as a single CD (Cedille Records CDR 90000 171).

Inventive Album

"Osorio has created an inventive album of richly satisfying works that capture the essence of each composer's towering individuality," says James Ginsburg, Cedille Records founder and president.

"His penchant for color accentuates the individual character of Brahms's concentrated miniatures. His insights into the musical architecture of Schubert's Sonatas yield eloquent performances of these spacious, ambitious masterworks," Ginsburg says.

Schubert and Brahms both exhibited renewed bursts of creativity toward the end of their careers. In his three late piano sonatas, the last two of which appear on Final Thoughts, Schubert "strikes out on a new path" from his previous piano sonatas, observes Andrea Lamoreaux in her liner notes for the recording. "Schubert was looking ahead to the Romantic era of increasing harmonic freedom, while still sticking to Classical sonata form, used in his own way." These large-scale sonatas of "heavenly length" - a phrase Schumann used to describe Schubert's nearly hour-long Great C Major Symphony - are each approximately 40 minutes long and are somewhat unusual for being in four movements instead of three.

Brahms's four sets of short, introspective piano pieces "have tinges of Brahms's signature 'autumnal' melancholy," Lamoreaux writes. "In miniature, they reveal his total mastery of his craft."

Lamoureaux, veteran music director at Chicago's classical WFMT, suggests that these "very intimate expressions of musical thought . . . might best be heard by imagining that you are playing them yourself, instead of listening to someone else, and thus envisioning Brahms playing them for himself alone."

Recording Dates and Venues

Final Thoughts was produced by James Ginsburg and engineered by Bill Maylone. The album was recorded June 27-30 and July 26, 2016, at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago.

Jorge Federico Osorio

Jorge Federico Osorio, whom the Los Angeles Times called "one of the more elegant and accomplished pianists on the planet," has garnered several international prizes and awards, including the Medalla Bellas Artes, the most distinguished honor granted by his native Mexico's National Institute of Fine Arts, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Gina Bachauer Award.

Osorio has performed as soloist with leading orchestras in Europe, the United States, Mexico, and South America. Recent engagements include performing the complete Beethoven concertos with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor James Conlon at the Ravinia Festival. He is scheduled to perform the complete Beethoven cycle with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and conductors Robert Spano and Roberto Abbado in early 2018.

An avid chamber musician, Osorio has performed Brahms's Piano Quintet with Yo-Yo Ma and musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has served as artistic director of Mexico's Brahms Chamber Music Festival.

In the U.S., Osorio has given solo recitals in recent years in Berkeley, Calif., for Cal Performances; Boston; and Chicago, where he has appeared on Symphony Center's Piano Series on four separate occasions. His two recitals in New York at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall received sterling reviews in The New York Times.

The pianist made his Cedille Records debut in 2004 with the acclaimed Piano Español, featuring solo works of de Falla, Albéniz, Soler, and Granados. The Chicago Tribune wrote, "Move over, Alicia de Larrocha," while the San Francisco Chronicle said, "Choosing one highlight over another is impossible in a recording of such sustained excellence." Osorio went on to record the Cedille albums Mexican Piano Music by Manuel M. Ponce, Debussy and Liszt, Salón Mexicano, Carlos Chávez Piano Concerto, and Russian Recital.

He has also recorded for the Artek, ASV, CBS, EMI, IMP, and Naxos labels. His solo Brahms recording on ASV was judged "Quite marvelous" by BBC Music Magazine. The Chicago Tribune said the album heralded Osorio as "an important Brahmsian."

Osorio resides in the Chicago area, where he serves on the faculty of Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts. His website is jorgefedericoosorio.com.

Cedille Records

Marking its 27th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, Grammy award-winning Cedille Records (pronounced say-DEE) has been dedicated to showcasing the most noteworthy classical artists in and from the Chicago area since its debut in November 1989.

The audiophile-oriented label releases every new album in multiple formats: physical CD; 96 kHz, 24-bit, studio-quality FLAC download; and 320 Kbps MP3 download.

An independent nonprofit enterprise, Cedille Records is the label of Cedille Chicago, NFP. Sales of physical CDs and digital downloads and streams cover only a small percentage of the label's costs. Tax-deductible donations from individual music-lovers and grants from charitable organizations account for most of its revenue.

Headquarters are at 1205 W. Balmoral Ave., Chicago, IL 60640; call (773) 989-2515; email: info@cedillerecords.org. Website: cedillerecords.org.

Cedille Records is distributed in the Western Hemisphere by Naxos of America and its distribution partners, by Select Music in the U.K., and by other independent distributors in the Naxos network in classical music markets around the world.

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