Paul Lewis

Paul Lewis CBE (born May 20, 1972 in Liverpool ) is a British pianist .

Life

Paul Lewis first learned the cello as a child and only began taking piano lessons at the age of twelve.

In 1987 he began his studies with Ryszard Bakst at Chetham's School of Music and in 1990 moved to Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama . In 1993 he became a master student of Alfred Brendel .

He won second prize at the 1994 London International Piano Competition. In 1997 Steinway named him the “1000. Steinway Artist ”. In 1998 Paul Lewis made his first appearance at the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra .

From 2000 to 2002 he taught as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music . In 2002 he played at Wigmore Hall , which nominated him for the Rising Stars series of the leading European concert halls. Paul Lewis played as a soloist with various orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Philharmonic. As a chamber music accompanist, he performed with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Adrian Brendel as well as the Leopold String Trio.

Lewis played at numerous festivals, such as the piano festival in Lucerne, the Ruhr Festival and the Festival de Roque-d'Anthéron in the Bouches-du-Rhône department . As with Francesco Libetta , this concert was recorded directly and later released on DVD.

repertoire

Alongside Till Fellner and Kit Armstrong, Paul Lewis is Alfred Brendel's best-known student. So it is not surprising that the repertoire and interpretation are closely based on the teacher. Like Brendel, Lewis preferred works by Franz Schubert , Beethoven and Liszt . In 2001 and 2002 he played all of Schubert's piano sonatas at Wigmore Hall and has since been working on a complete recording of the works. Lewis went on concert tours through Australia, New Zealand and the United States, among others . In 2009 he also presented a complete recording of the Beethoven sonatas.

His playing is fulfilled and strives to be faithful to the work without appearing cold or mechanical. His beautiful touch is not forced, sometimes a little cautious; the articulation clear, but not lovingly detailed. With Schubert he works his way - even with small pieces - through natural rubato into the emotional depths of the music and underlines its dramatic-psychological structure through fine nuances. For example, he illuminates the dance moment musicaux No. 3 in F minor (often heard as a piano student piece) from the ballet hall with seriousness, while he plays the corner movements of the fourth in C sharp minor and puts the emotional focus on the middle section in D Major sets.

Like his teacher, he renounces the titanic gesture and the demonic excessive with Liszt. The B minor sonata never seems overheated under his hands . Compared to Brendel, his sound is a bit softer, so that his playing has a poetically muted aura in lyrical passages.

The emphasis on the poetic and tonal elements in Beethoven's fast movements - as in the Sonatas op. 31 or the Allegro con brio of the Waldstein Sonata - leads to unusually slow tempos.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ingo Harden, Gregor Willmes, PianistenProfile 600 performers: their biography, their style, their recordings, Paul Lewis, p. 483, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2008.
2. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ^ Ingo Harden, Gregor Willmes, PianistenProfile ibid.

Web links

• Paul Lewis at Harmonia Mundi