Friday 28 January 2011

Paul Lewis piano

Programme

Schubert	Sonata for Piano no.15 in C D840 (Moderato and Andante).
Schubert	Three piano pieces D946.
- Interval -
Schubert	Sonata for Piano no.17 in D major D850 (1825).

Paul Lewis is widely celebrated for his considered and profound interpretations of the classical repertoire, and is recognised internationally as one of today’s most distinctive and poetic pianists. His many awards have included the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award and the South Bank Show Classical Music Award, both in 2003, a Diapason d’or de l’annee in France in 2002, two successive Edison awards in Holland in 2004 and 2005, and the Gramophone Instrumental Award and Record of the Year in 2008. In 2006 he was awarded the 25th Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. Between 2005 and 2007, he performed the complete Beethoven Sonatas at venues throughout Europe and North America to great critical acclaim, and his recordings of the cycle for Harmonia Mundi have received unanimous praise throughout the world.  His recording of Schubert’s Winterreise with Mark Padmore was Editor’s Choice in the November 2009 issue of Gramophone Magazine, and was hailed as one of the best discs of 2009 in The Sunday Telegraph.  

Paul Lewis is a regular guest at many of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals including the BBC Proms, appearing at the televised 'Last Night' in 2005, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Roque d’Antheron Piano Festival, and the Klavier Festival Ruhr.  He has a particularly strong relationship with London’s Wigmore Hall where he has appeared on more than thirty occasions. He has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras including all of the major UK orchestras, the Vienna Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony, NDR-Philharmonie Hannover, Wiener Kammerphilharmonie, Seattle Symphony, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, and Melbourne Symphony, with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Andrew Davis, Marin Alsop, Dimitri Kitajenko, Daniel Harding, and Richard Hickox. 

Recent highlights have included appearances at the BBC Proms 2010 when Paul Lewis became the first ever pianist to play all five Beethoven Piano Concertos during a single Proms season. He also has a busy international schedule of recitals which included Royal Festival Hall debut in June 2010, appearances with the Bayerische Rundfunk, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Sao Paolo Symphony Orchestras, a complete Beethoven concerto cycle with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, and lieder recitals with Mark Padmore, opening the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York with Beethoven’s 5th concerto, concerts in New York, Chicago, Milan and Turin with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis, a European tour with the Bournemouth Symphony and Marin Alsop, a complete Beethoven Concerto cycle with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and an extensive tour of the US with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Solo recitals have taken him to venues such as Toppan Hall Tokyo, Symphony Centre Chicago, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tonhalle Zurich, Auditorio Nacional Madrid, Kennedy Centre Washington, and the Vienna Konzerthaus.   

In 2011 he embarks upon a two year Schubert project, performing all the mature piano works from the Wandererfantasie onwards, as well as the three song cycles. Future CD releases include Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, and the completion of the three Schubert song cycles with Mark Padmore. Paul Lewis has also recorded the complete Beethoven Concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jiri Belohlavek.

Paul Lewis studied with Ryszard Bakst at Chethams School of Music and Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel. Along with his wife the Norwegian cellist Bjørg Lewis, he is artistic director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.

"There is in Lewis’s playing a strong physicality, a firm connection between his deep thinking about the music and his articulation of it." Geoffrey Norris, Daily Telegraph.

Visit Paul Lewis's website.