Friday, May 2, 2008
8:00 p.m.
Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall
Paul Lewis, piano
A favorite of Middlebury audiences, this season pianist Paul Lewis should begin to make his mark in concert halls around the country: playing at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival; with the London Symphony Orchestra in New York and Chicago; and at the Gilmore Festival in Michigan. In a review of his 2005 Washington recital, Tim Page wrote that “Lewis seems incapable of playing anything in a bland or nerveless fashion. His sense of meter is infinitely elastic and yet the pieces hold together organically.” His Middlebury program consists of works by Mozart, Ligeti, and Schubert. Sponsored by the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series. Reserved Seating. Tickets: $15/12/5
http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets or 802-443-MIDD (6433).
Program: MOZART Fantasia in C minor, K. 475
LIGETI Musica Ricercata (11 Pieces for Piano)
MOZART Rondo in A minor, K. 511
SCHUBERT Sonata No.18 in G Major, D894 ‘Fantasy’
For additional program notes, please contact Events and Residency Manager Allison Coyne Carroll at carroll@middlebury.edu
Artist Biography: Paul Lewis is one of the most sought after artists of his generation, appearing regularly at the world’s major musical venues and festivals. He studied with Ryszard Bakst at Chetham's School of Music and Joan Havill at the Guildhall in London, after which he received regular coaching from Alfred Brendel. After many competition successes, including the 1994 London International Piano Competition, he was selected for the BBC’s inaugural “New Generation” artist scheme, and was chosen by the Wigmore Hall for the European Concert Halls Organisation’s “Rising Stars” Scheme. His highly acclaimed Schubert piano sonata series, presented at venues throughout the UK, including the Wigmore Hall, won him both the South Bank Show Classical Music Award, and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award in 2003, and his recordings for Harmonia Mundi have won many international awards including 2 successive Edison awards in Holland in 2004 & 2005. More recently he was awarded the 25th Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. Following on from the success of his Schubert Sonata series Paul Lewis is currently performing a complete cycle of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas at venues across Europe and the US through to the end of 2007.
His recent international schedule has included recital and concerto debuts throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia. He has also appeared regularly at the BBC Proms, including the televised “Last Night” in 2005, and at both the Cheltenham and the Edinburgh international festivals, the Schubertiade Festival in Schwarzenberg, the Roque d’Antheron Festival, and both the Risor and Vancouver Chamber Music Festivals. He has appeared with many of the worlds leading orchestras including the Vienna Symphony, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, The Hallé, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, CBSO, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Kammerphilharmonie, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, and Seattle Symphony, under such conductors as Bernard Haitink, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Mark Elder, Sir Chalres Mackerras, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Marin Alsop, Ivor Bolton, Richard Hickox, Emmanuel Krivine, Alexander Polianichko, Joseph Swensen, Vassily Sinaisky and Gerard Schwarz. As a much sought-after chamber musician, he has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Collins and Ernst Kovacic, Adrian Brendel, Steven Osborne, the Sine Nomine Quartet, and the Leopold String Trio.
In addition to his ongoing Beethoven Sonata series the 2005-2006 season also included concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink, and the London Philharmonic, the Mozart Concerto for 2 Pianos with Till Fellner at the 2006 BBC Proms, and a nationwide recital tour of Australia for Musica Viva.
Paul Lewis’s recordings for Harmonia Mundi include two all Schubert CDs, the first winning a Diapson d’Or Choc de l’Année in France in 2002, and the second won the 2004 Edison Instrumentalist Award in Holland. His third disc for them featuring the Liszt sonata, also won the Edison Instrumentalist Award in 2005. The first CD of his complete series of Beethoven Sonatas was released in September 2005, and the second volume, a triple CD box set, will be released in the UK in October 2006. He has also recorded both Mozart Piano Quartets and Schubert’s Trout Quintet with the Leopold String Trio for Hyperion Records.
Artist Websites:
http://www.ingpen.co.uk/artist_detail.php?aid=76
http://www.harmoniamundi.com/usa/artistes_fiche.php?artist_id=1744
Press Quotes:
"He is the musician as master storyteller, and he keeps our eager attention."--The Washington Post
"What Lewis does better than practically any other pianist of his generation is to caress chords with such tender care that they seem to unlock worlds of profound emotion" --The Times, London
"Lewis's performance (Waldstein Sonata) was faultless as he brought out the poetry, warmth and exuberance that pervades this monumental work. Beg or steal a ticket for the concerts in March and May.” --The Scotsman 11/30/2005
"There is in Lewis's playing a strong physicality, a firm connection between his deep thinking about the music and his articulation of it. He knows and can define its character, and can show how its rhythmic, harmonic and melodic components coalesce. This was playing of intellectual rigour and imaginative vigour." --Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph
"Lewis is one of the exceptional artists who compels you to concentrate closely on the music, because his playing is so obviously the product not merely of acute stylistic instinct, but also of deep interpretative thought."--Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph