FANFARE, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023
COLIN CLARKE
The command Osorio has of the keyboard is remarkable, as is his innate feeling for this music. He captures the flitting, skittish nature of Ricardo Castro’s writing in the first movement of that composer’s A-Minor Concerto (dedicated, incidentally, to Reinecke). Castro is one of those composers who died early (his dates are 1864–1907). A pianist himself, he gave the Mexican premiere of the Grieg Piano Concerto. Castro is clearly of Romantic bent, and Osorio and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto give the first movement of his Piano Concerto plenty of space to speak. Apparently, this is the first Mexican piano concerto, or even concertante work with piano. Castro seems keen to emphasize the influence of Chopin in both the first and second movements, and his projection of line is perfectly judged. The recording is superb: The brass climax of the first movement is properly moving and sonically impressive, and the delicate woodwind entrance to support the very closing measures of the slow movement is perfectly judged and together. Osorio is beautifully expressive in this post-Chopinesque Andante; but it is in the scintillating finale that the true delights really happen. This polonaise glitters, and yet some intriguing turns of harmony add an extra layer of fascination. Osorio’s legerdemain is phenomenal, as is the orchestra’s own lightness and discipline. It is impossible to imagine a finer performance of this concerto.
The set of solo piano works by Castro is a dream: a “Berceuse” from a set of two Piano Pieces, op. 36 (the other is a “Valse mélancolique”) that does exactly what it says on the case, and deliciously….Read the full review
“An imaginative interpreter with a powerful technique”
- THE NEW YORK TIMES
“One of the more elegant and accomplished pianists on the planet”
- LOS ANGELES TIMES
"A serious and cultivated Beethoven player"
- CHICAGO TRIBUNE
"A distinguished name among pianists"
- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
"Superb"
- WASHINGTON POST
Osorio joins carlos miguel prieto in brahms concerto no. 1 with north carolina symphony
Christopher Hill
Earrelevant.net 22 October 2024
He has been playing this concerto for many years, and from the evidence of this performance, he is still finding new epiphanies in it. His was a highly personal and authentic performance….In all three movements, Mr. Osorio was searching in his exploration of Brahms’s piano part without any suggestion that he didn’t have the “chops” to perform the work at, if he wished, breakneck speed.