At
38 Paul Lewis is a major pianist, and his new recordings of the five Beethoven
piano concertos, with Jiri Belohlavek conducting the BBC Symphony
Orchestra (Harmonia Mundi HMC 902053.55; three CDs), are exceptionally
fine. These are freshly considered, elegant and engrossing performances.
Though
Mr. Lewis has an extensive repertory, Beethoven has been central to his
activities of late.
Starting in 2005 he performed the 32 Beethoven
piano sonatas in a series of recitals in Europe and America. His widely
acclaimed recordings of the sonatas for Harmonia Mundi, first issued in
installments, are now available as a 10-CD boxed set. Even among the
eminent competition, including several historic surveys, Mr. Lewis’s
recordings are richly satisfying. The same holds for the new concerto
set.
The first movement of the Concerto No. 1 in C suggests what is to come.
The tempo, though lively, is not especially fast. The exuberance stems
from the mix of urgency and relaxation that Mr. Belohlavek draws from
the orchestra.
The phrases of the theme are laid out with clarity and
purpose, like the sentences of a compelling conversationalist. When the
piano makes its first entrance, Mr. Lewis is similarly lucid and
immediate. His playing is by turns delicate, incisive, mysterious,
punchy: whatever seems called for.
In each concerto Mr. Lewis is specially good at fleshing out the
character of the music. There is no padding, no mere passage work in
these performances. Every phrase speaks; every note counts. The tempos
of the jaunty Concerto No. 2 in B flat are restrained in comparison with
those in many of typical performances. Yet by revealing the refinement
of the music so sensitively, Mr. Lewis makes this work seem less
beholden to existing Classical models, more a precursor to the mystical
experiments that were to come, specially in the Fourth Concerto.
He also has plenty of firepower in the break-out moments of the
“Emperor” Concerto, like the pummeling double octaves in the vehement
development section of the first movement. Still, what distinguishes the
performance is Mr. Lewis’s deft blend of magisterial vigor and
impetuosity. Mr. Belohlavek and the BBC players are his co-conspirators
in this bracing “Emperor.” Fourth Concerto.
Credits : Mixing Urgency and Relaxation
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