Paul lewis piano biography of william
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Paul Lewis, Wigmore Hall review - Schubert sonatas revisited
It was quite an odyssey for those of us who followed those concerts (in my case, across two of those continents), and apparently for Lewis too, as he revisits selections from that programme, adding other, earlier, Schubert sonatas for a scaled-down version of those tours, this time across Britain and Europe, with Asia and North America to follow.
Astride this weekend, London’s Wigmore Hall staged the third, penultimate, programme of the series: two concerts of the same three sonatas, including that which Robert Schumann described as “the most perfect sonata in form and spirit”, in G Major, D894.
Before he set out on the voyage of 2011-2013, Lewis said something revelatory about Schubert, and inconsequentiality in his music. Not for nothing was Schubert the favourite composer of Samuel Beckett, that master of inconsequentiality in literature, and an accomplished amateur pianist.
Lewis put it this way: “We’re all supp
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Paul Lewis
PART THREE | SUNDAY 4 FEBRUARY | 2.30PM
'... the most delicate nuance, significance everywhere, the keenest expression of the particular, and finally the whole suffused with a romanticism... And the heavenly length ...'
– Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
Sonata No. 4 in A minor, D. 537
Sonata No. 9 in B, D. 575
Sonata No. 18 in G, D. 894
PART FOUR | SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY | 2.30PM
'Art should forget its constraints, mix the disparate, be unreasonable, want more than it can do and do more than anybody can want. Boundless is beautiful. [...] Where Schubert's music used to appear too long, suddenly it cannot be long enough.'
– Alfred Brendel (b. 1931)
Sonata No. 19 in C minor, D. 958
Sonata No. 20 in A, D. 959
Sonata No. 21 in B flat, D. 960
Complimentary afternoon tea will be served during the interval of both concerts.
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PAUL LEWIS was born into a family of professional musicians in Brighton, England, in 1943. As a child he was fascinated by history and ancient buildings, reluctantly learning the piano from the age of nine. At twelve he saw the Shakespeare films of Laurence Olivier with Walton's music and immediately realized he had to be a composer. He purposely avoided all formal training, choosing instead to leave school at fifteen and enter music publishing to find out how the music business worked from inside.
After leaving the College Paul had little contact with the school until recently when he was rediscovered by one of the College's music staff at a Jubilee Street Party! Since then Paul has been in to the College to conduct a rehearsal of his piece 'Rosa Mundi', subsequently performed by the College Chamber Orchestra at the Autumn Concert and more recently at the Theatre Royal Evening, and has very much enjoyed his renewed acquaintance with the College and the Old Brightonians. "I will