Beethoven and Schubert

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Event 8
Thursday October 15th, 8.00pm
Little Missenden Church

 

Franz Schubert  Four Impromptus op142, D935
Ludwig van Beethoven  Diabelli Variations, op 120

Paul Lewis piano

Paul Lewis is one of Britain’s outstanding pianists. His cycle of Beethoven sonatas (2005-07) was one of the musical events of the time. On his second visit to Little Missenden he will play Beethoven’s massive and ground-breaking Diabelli Variations, which Paul’s teacher Alfred Brendel described as simply "the greatest of all piano works". In 2007 Gary Cooper gave us a radiant performance of this wonderful piece on a piano of Beethoven’s own time, and now Paul Lewis will explore it with all the resources of a modern Steinway.

The programme will also include the last four of Schubert’s captivating Impromptus, written the year before his death. These poetic pieces can seem simple on the surface with their beautiful lyrical melodies, but they have more sombre depths.

A protégé of Alfred Brendel, Paul Lewis has few equals as an interpreter of Beethoven and Schubert. This is how Michael Church described one of his Schubert recitals in the Independent: "The music has you hanging on every note, with its perfectly judged modulations between great power and a tenderly singing tone; the face may be impassive, but the sounds conjured by the hands have a molten intensity"

"These performances are a transparent act of musical love and devotion. Nothing is exaggerated yet virtually everything is included. Of all the modern versions of the (Beethoven) sonatas… Lewis’s is surely the most eloquent and persuasive" (Bryce Morrison, Gramophone)

He has won an impressive clutch of awards, including:
• 2008 Gramophone Record of the Year & Instrumental Recording of the Year
• 2006 25th Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana
• 2004 & 2005 Edison Instrumentalist Award (Holland)
• 2003 Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year
• 2003 South Bank Show Classical Music Award

Paul Lewis is a Steinway artist.

Click here for Wikipedia entry for Paul Lewis

Tickets £18, £13, £8
The lowest priced seats have a restricted view

Concert sponsored by Kenneth Walker