LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

 

Complete Piano Concertos

 

Paul Lewis (piano)

BBC Symphony Orchestra / Jiri Belohlávek

 

At the press launch of this year’s BBC Proms (2010) season Roger Wright (Controller, BBC Radio 3 and Director of the BBC Proms) announced that for the first time ever, one pianist, Paul Lewis, would

be performing all Beethoven’s Piano Concertos, albeit with different orchestras.

 

His complete set of the Beethoven sonatas enjoyed extraordinary acclaim in the UK, culminating in the prestigious ‘Recording of the Year’ award from Gramophone magazine for the fourth volume in 2008. Encouraged by what has now become a worldwide success, Paul Lewis has chosen to turn his attention to the five piano concertos with these distinguished partners. Recorded between July 2009 and March 2010, these interpretations paint a portrait of Beethoven full of light and shade.

 

Paul Lewis studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel.

 

Today, Paul Lewis is a regular guest at many of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals, performing with leading orchestras and conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Christoph von

Dohnanyi, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Charles Mackerras, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Andrew Davis and Marin Alsop. He has given recitals across Europe and the United States, as well as in Japan and Australia.

 

Paul Lewis has a particularly strong relationship with London’s Wigmore Hall, where he has appeared on more than 40 occasions and where he launched a Schubert cycle with tenor Mark Padmore. Their

recording of Schubert’s Winterreise (harmonia mundi) was named ‘Disc of the Month’ in the November 2009 issue of Gramophone Magazine.

 

Between 2005 and 2007, Paul Lewis performed all the Beethoven piano sonatas on tour in the USA and Europe, in tandem with his complete recording of the cycle for harmonia mundi. This project earned him

two Gramophone Awards in 2008: Recording of the Year and Best Instrumental Recording. Paul Lewis now moves on to the Beethoven piano concertos, all of which he is performing at the BBC Proms in the

summer of 2010 – the first time the complete cycle will be performed there by the same soloist in a single season.

 

Harmonia Mundi HMC902053-55