Paul Lewis begins PIANO SONATA CYCLE
The young British pianist began his odyssey earlier tonight with the Op 31 set and the "little" sonata Op 78.
This is my first ever cycle of sonatas so I was rather excited and Mr Lewis did not disappoint bringing out the clownish oddball character of Op 31 no 1 quite perfectly and handling the darker more urgent tones of the D Minor work with some aplomb.
But it was the E Flat Major Sonata Op 31 no 3 that I was most looking forward to as I had never heard it live before. This was sheer delight from start to finish. The beautiful opening melody, the manic 2nd movt, the utterly charming dance and the "galloping" finale (and yes, his hands seemed to be galloping!) combined to great effect. The connections between these 3 works were quite noticeable too on hearing them together.
Only problem is that he is going to take 8 concerts to complete the cycle which is fairly standard I suppose but here these will be spread over 2 YEARS... Keep watching this space!!
This is my first ever cycle of sonatas so I was rather excited and Mr Lewis did not disappoint bringing out the clownish oddball character of Op 31 no 1 quite perfectly and handling the darker more urgent tones of the D Minor work with some aplomb.
But it was the E Flat Major Sonata Op 31 no 3 that I was most looking forward to as I had never heard it live before. This was sheer delight from start to finish. The beautiful opening melody, the manic 2nd movt, the utterly charming dance and the "galloping" finale (and yes, his hands seemed to be galloping!) combined to great effect. The connections between these 3 works were quite noticeable too on hearing them together.
Only problem is that he is going to take 8 concerts to complete the cycle which is fairly standard I suppose but here these will be spread over 2 YEARS... Keep watching this space!!