Paul Lewis – Schubert: Works for piano, vol.2 (2012) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Paul Lewis – Schubert: Works for piano, vol.2 (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:03:09 minutes | 1,86 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

Award-winning pianist Paul Lewis is internationally regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. His cycles of core piano works by Beethoven and Schubert received unanimous critical and public acclaim worldwide, and consolidated his reputation as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the central European classical repertoire. Lewis’s vast Beethoven project, recording the complete sonatas and piano concertos, was greeted all over the world as a landmark and completed in 2011. On this 2012 release Lewis turns his attention back to to Franz Schubert, the other key focus of his concert career and the other pillar of his discography. Schubert’s Piano Sonata, D.845 was the first of his three sonatas to be published during his lifetime. In July of 1825 Schubert wrote a long letter to his parents, in which he stated: “They particularly enjoyed the variations from my new sonata for piano solo, which I performed quite successfully, and several people assured me that under my fingers the keys began to sing. If this is sincere, it makes me very happy since I cannot stand the wretched hacking which is typical of even excellent pianists, as it pleases neither the ear nor the heart.”

After his widely praised recordings of Schubert’s late piano sonatas, British pianist Paul Lewis returns with another two-disc box covering the Wanderer-Fantasie in C major, Op. 15, the Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 845, and two sets of smaller works. Lewis was a student of Alfred Brendel and might be regarded as his chief protégé. As with Brendel, you come away from hearing his playing with the feeling that you’ve been given a great deal to chew on. In lyric passages he is straightforward and a little dry. This intentional, for the large slow movement of the D. 845 sonata, shows that Lewis can spin out a sustained passage of nearly static beauty when he thinks it necessary. But in general he is more interested in small details and in the relationship of part to whole. His tempi are brisk, with plenty of variation, and the longer pieces feel broken down into little sections in which it’s true, you will hear surprising things you may not have noticed before in these pieces. Sterling results are obtained in the Wanderer-Fantasie, where each appearance of the main theme in its various guises is given a different weight without ever falling out of the long line Lewis gives to the entire work. In his hands, the work seems at once to be grappling with Beethoven and to look far into the future, which, one feels, is as it should be. The D. 845 sonata is also very strong, with richly complex readings of the two long opening movements. If there’s a fault here it’s that the Impromptus, D. 935, and the Moments Musicaux, D. 780, may lack a certain evanescence that most listeners will expect, but even here Lewis finds subtleties galore. Strongly recommended, as usual with this intelligent player. –AllMusic Review by James Manheim

Tracklist:
01. Paul Lewis – Wandererfantasie Op. 15 D.760 in C Major: I. Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo (05:44)
02. Paul Lewis – Wandererfantasie Op. 15 D.760 in C Major: II. Adagio (06:30)
03. Paul Lewis – Wandererfantasie Op. 15 D.760 in C Major: III. Presto (04:45)
04. Paul Lewis – Wandererfantasie Op. 15 D.760 in C Major: IV. Allegro (03:31)
05. Paul Lewis – 4 Impromptus Op. post.142 D.935: I. Allegro moderato (F Minor) (10:38)
06. Paul Lewis – 4 Impromptus Op. post.142 D.935: II. Allegretto. Trio (A flat Major) (06:32)
07. Paul Lewis – 4 Impromptus Op. post.142 D.935: III. Thema Andante. Variations I-V. Più lento (B flat Major) (11:14)
08. Paul Lewis – 4 Impromptus Op. post.142 D.935: IV. Allegro scherzando (F Minor) (06:15)
09. Paul Lewis – Sonata No. 16 Op. 42 D.845 in A Minor: I. Moderato (10:34)
10. Paul Lewis – Sonata No. 16 Op. 42 D.845 in A Minor: II. Andante poco mosso (12:41)
11. Paul Lewis – Sonata No. 16 Op. 42 D.845 in A Minor: III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace – Trio. Un poco più lento (07:03)
12. Paul Lewis – Sonata No. 16 Op. 42 D.845 in A Minor: IV. Rondo. Allegro vivace (05:22)
13. Paul Lewis – 6 Moments musicaux Op. 94 D.780: I. Moderato (05:57)
14. Paul Lewis – 6 Moments musicaux Op. 94 D.780: II. Andantino (05:32)
15. Paul Lewis – 6 Moments musicaux Op. 94 D.780: III. Allegretto moderato (01:54)
16. Paul Lewis – 6 Moments musicaux Op. 94 D.780: IV. Moderato (05:15)
17. Paul Lewis – 6 Moments musicaux Op. 94 D.780: V. Allegro vivace (02:08)
18. Paul Lewis – 6 Moments musicaux Op. 94 D.780: VI. Allegretto. Trio (06:31)
19. Paul Lewis – Allegretto in C Minor D.915 (04:52)

Personnel:
Paul Lewis – piano

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