2008 Innovators: Paul Lewis
Featured Album
Beethoven’s body of 32 sonatas for piano — his own instrument — are to pianists what Everest is to mountaineers. The material runs the gamut, from pieces for beginners (what piano student hasn’t played one of the Op. 49 sonatas as their introduction to the classical style?) to works of otherworldly beauty and what-was-he-thinking? technical demands. Taken together, they stand as a foundation stone of the piano repertory.
This past year, Harmonia Mundi released the final installment of Liverpool-born pianist Paul Lewis’s four-volume, ten-disc recording of the complete 32, a project launched in 2005 which has earned glowing reviews and multiple honors (the fourth volume was named Gramophone’s “Record of the Year”). The 36-year-old’s discography also includes music by Schubert and Liszt.
eMusic’s Gavin Borchert spoke with Lewis while he was back home in London, just a few days after he’d returned from performing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Let’s start with the most obvious question: What led you, at this relatively early point in your career, to decide to get all your Beethoven sonatas down on record?
Well, about six or seven years ago, in the 2001 season, I played a Schubert sonata cycle, which was pretty much a UK thing — it happened in just a few places. I enjoy doing this kind of thing — I loved playing this music so much that I thought perhaps I should do a Beethoven cycle sometime in the future. I had already recorded some Schubert sonatas, so it made sense to record this Beethoven too. The ordering of the sonatas [in the four-volume series] was based on my concert programs. At the end of every tour I would then go into the studio and record that program.
I know that you’ve studied with Alfred Brendel — did you work particularly on these sonatas with him? He must have had some interesting insights into these pieces.
I worked on quite a lot of the Beethoven sonatas, but we did a lot of other things that were in his repertory: Haydn, Schubert, Mozart, Brahms>. . . I remember one Prokofiev seventh sonata which I played on the radio, and he happened to listen in to the broadcast, and he talked to me about it afterward. . . of course he had a lot to say about Beethoven, but he also had ideas about the Prokofiev. It was fascinating to hear him talk about anything.
When you started to embark on this Beethoven cycle, would you say there were things you learned along the way? Have your ideas about Beethoven evolved?
I don’t know that my way of thinking about him has changed, but I do think there’s this stereotype of Beethoven being very forceful and aggressive, and actually there’s so much more to him than that. . . I think that to be able to balance his reflectiveness, his heart, all these totally different attitudes, is the real challenge of these sonatas.
I remember in particular your recording of the “Pastoral” Sonata [Op. 28], and it struck me how lyrical it was, with this wonderful kind of outdoor feeling to it — it was just a gorgeous performance. When you say Beethoven’s aggression is not the only thing you want to focus on, I think it comes out especially in that piece. Now that you’ve immersed yourself in Beethoven, has it influenced at all the way you play other repertory?
I hope not too much — after Beethoven I’ve come back to Schubert, and I’m planning a further series of recordings, perhaps putting them out a few years down the line. [Lewis 'recording of Schubert's song cycle Die Winterreise, with tenor Mark Padmore, is schedule for an autumn 2009 release.] But actually what strikes me even more after playing the Beethoven cycle is how very different those two composers are, though they were contemporaries. . . That’s what I find interesting, playing up the contrast.
Well, the two are seen as a kind of yin and yang, and Schumann had these theories about contrasting the two, even going so far as to attribute “masculine” and “feminine” qualities to them, so it’s interesting to hear that’s an approach you’ll be taking. Any other repertory that you plan to dig into in the future, either in concert or in recordings?
I’m playing some [Gyorgy] Ligeti — his Musica ricercata is a great virtuoso piece. . . In the future I’ve got plans for more Schumann, Mozart, and such, but I’m actually also keeping an eye out for contemporary music. [Gyorgy] Kurtag, for one. . . gesture is so important in Kurtag, and I like the way that marries up with the structure, and that to me is what’s important, not whether it’s tonal or atonal, but how it reaches the listener. . . you certainly hear that in Ligeti. It’s very powerful music.
I hope that’s something you can get Harmonia Mundi interested in!
Well, I can try!
