At the press launch of this year’s BBC Proms season Roger Wright (Controller, BBC Radio 3 and
Director of the BBC Proms) announced that for the first time ever, one pianist, Paul Lewis, would
be performing all Beethoven’s Piano Concertos, albeit with different orchestras.
His complete set of the Beethoven sonatas enjoyed extraordinary acclaim in the UK, culminating
in the prestigious ‘Recording of the Year’ award from Gramophone magazine for the fourth
volume in 2008. Encouraged by what has now become a worldwide success, Paul Lewis has chosen
to turn his attention to the five piano concertos with these distinguished partners. Recorded
between July 2009 and March 2010, these interpretations paint a portrait of Beethoven full of light
and shade.
Paul Lewis studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama, before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel.
Today, Paul Lewis is a regular guest at many of the world’s most
prestigious venues and festivals, performing with leading orchestras and
conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Christoph von
Dohnanyi, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Charles Mackerras, Wolfgang Sawallisch,
Sir Andrew Davis and Marin Alsop. He has given recitals across Europe
and the United States, as well as in Japan and Australia.
Paul Lewis has a particularly strong relationship with London’s
Wigmore Hall, where he has appeared on more than 40 occasions and
where he launched a Schubert cycle with tenor Mark Padmore. Their
recording of Schubert’s Winterreise (harmonia mundi) was named ‘Disc
of the Month’ in the November 2009 issue of Gramophone Magazine.
Between 2005 and 2007, Paul Lewis performed all the Beethoven piano sonatas on tour in the USA and
Europe, in tandem with his complete recording of the cycle for harmonia mundi. This project earned him
two Gramophone Awards in 2008: Recording of the Year and Best Instrumental Recording. Paul Lewis now
moves on to the Beethoven piano concertos, all of which he is performing at the BBC Proms in the
summer of 2010 – the first time the complete cycle will be performed there by the same soloist in a single
season.
“This is a superb set in which Lewis asserts his own inspiring voice together with his mature insight into Beethoven's creative mind.”
Geoffrey Norris - Daily Telegraph - Classical CD of the Week
“These performances are a transparent act of musical love and devotion. Of all the modern versions of the
sonatas Lewis’s is surely the most eloquent and persuasive. And harmonia mundi’s sound is of
demonstration quality” Gramophone(Editor's Choice) on Paul Lewis Beethoven Piano Sonatas
Artists: Paul Lewis (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Jiri Belohlávek
Works: Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
Complete Piano Concertos
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