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Presto News - 31st October 2011Sublime Schubert from Paul Lewis |
 Over the past ten years British pianist Paul Lewis has concentrated almost entirely on Beethoven. He toured the world performing and then recording all the Sonatas (the final volume picking up the Gramophone Record of the Year at the 2008 Awards), and then did likewise with the Concertos and the Diabelli Variations. More recently he has turned his attentions to Schubert. Three critically acclaimed discs of the song cycles with tenor Mark Padmore are now followed by his first release of the composer’s late solo piano music. It is released today and is without doubt the most moving, intimate and tender account of this music I have ever heard.  Paul Lewis Schubert is often coupled with Beethoven as part of the same Viennese Classical tradition, but while Schubert adored Beethoven and they died less than two years apart, they were really from different generations (Beethoven was already 26 when Schubert was born) and there are as many differences in their music as there are similarities. As Paul Lewis pointed out in an interview in the Guardian newspaper earlier this year: "everything is on a smaller scale than Beethoven; he is not in search of the big effect, but something more graded and intimate… Beethoven always seems to find a way through, even to triumph. Schubert never does. He never finds a solution. At least not after 1822”. 1822 was the year in which Schubert was diagnosed with syphilis. Virtually all Schubert’s masterpieces (both for piano solo and other genres) postdate this. It seems his impending death gave his music an extra poignancy and often bleakness which it didn’t have before. He left a number of “unfinished” masterpieces, not least the famous “unfinished” symphony, but the two movement “Relique” Sonata, D840 which is included here is an equally fine work. Whether these works were unfinished because Schubert had no patron or publisher, or whether it was because the first movements were so extraordinary that the composer didn’t know how to follow them is often debated. Either way though most of them have become accepted as ‘complete’ in their ‘unfinished’ state (if that makes sense). Paul Lewis’s playing is characterised by a wonderful range of tonal colours and subtle control of moods. There is a real poise and intimacy about his playing and while he allows the energetic and unruly passages to threaten the status quo, they never succeed. This makes for tremendous excitement and anticipation but also a real heart-rending sense of inevitability. I have heard more dramatic performances, and also more ‘classical’ ones, but never anything so moving. This new recording comes in the middle of a two-year world tour of Schubert’s late piano works (1822-1828) which Paul Lewis began in February this year, and apart from the UK and Europe also takes in America, Japan, Australia and China. I’d strongly urge you to go and hear him if you can – full details of his concert schedule on his website here. But for those who can’t get to the concerts, or like me want to be able to listen to these performances over and over again, I know he’ll be in the recording studio again in December and March which I gather will go towards the next instalment in what promises to be a really memorable series of recordings.
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 Schubert: Piano Sonatas D840, 850, 894 & Impromptus D899Paul Lewis (piano) |
Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
Listen - sound samples available for this itemNew Releases31st October 2011 |
This is just the pick of the recent releases. The New Releases and Future Releases pages are always available for browsing all the new and forthcoming releases. |
 Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1-9 & OverturesKaterina Beranova (soprano), Lilli Paasikivi (alto), Robert Dean Smith (tenor) & Hanno Müller-Brachmann (bass), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Riccardo ChaillyThis complete cycle of Beethoven’s nine Symphonies is a landmark event for Decca, for Maestro Chailly, and for the Gewandhausorchester, where he has been Kapellmeister since 2005. These acclaimed performances were recorded live in the Gewandhaus over the last three years, in preparation for the highly-anticipated complete cycles that Maestro Chailly and the orchestra will give in several major European cities in October and November 2011 – performances which will provide the platform for launching these important new recordings. |
 The Romantic Piano Concerto 55 - WidorMarkus Becker (piano), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Thierry FischerCharles-Marie Widor was born in Lyon to a family of organ builders and consequently became an organist of great skill and an assistant to Camille Saint-Saëns at La Madeleine in Paris at the age of twenty-four. Today, Widor’s compositions for organ have a prominent position in the instrument’s core repertoire, but it is often forgotten that the composer wrote many other significant works, notably his two piano concertos. |
 Fasch: Orchestral Works, Volume 2Tempesta di Mare Philadelphia Baroque OrchestraThis is Volume 2 in Chandos’ series of orchestral works by Johann Friedrich Fasch, a contemporary of J.S. Bach and Telemann. In his day, his output in terms of cantatas, concertos, symphonies, and chamber music was performed extensively across the German-speaking world, and Fasch was held in great esteem by Bach who owned copies of six of his orchestral suites, and arranged at least one of his piano trio sonatas for organ. |
 Vaughan Williams/McEwen: Flos Campi & Viola ConcertoLawrence Power (viola), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Martyn BrabbinsThe lush orchestration and memorable themes in Sir John McEwen’s 1901 concerto expose this large-scale work as a neglected gem of the viola repertoire and Power’s performance is sure to set a new benchmark. The two Vaughan Williams works display an unabashed romanticism and pastoral elegance. |
 Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 24 & 25Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano), Die Kölner Akademie, Michael Alexander WillensRonald Brautigam, with the congenial support of Die Kölner Akademie, under Michael Alexander Willens, here performs Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 24 and 25, both composed in 1786. Brautigam uses a copy of a fortepiano from 1795, and with orchestral forces corresponding to what Mozart would have been familiar. |
 Victoria: De Beata Maria Virgine & Surge properaWestminster Cathedral Choir, Martin BakerFollowing the success of the Westminster Cathedral Lay Clerks in their sumptuous men-only recording of Victoria’s Missa Gaudeamus, the choir returns to full ranks for a further issue in their survey of the Masses of this undisputed Master of the Renaissance. |
 Yevgeny Sudbin Plays ChopinYevgeny Sudbin (piano)Sudbin opens this disc with the expansive Fantaisie in F minor – sometimes described as the composer's 'grandest work' – continuing with a selection of pieces from three genres that are strongly associated with Chopin: Mazurkas, Nocturnes and the Ballades Nos 3 and 4. |
 MacMillan: MiserereRobert Farley (trumpet), The Sixteen, Harry ChristophersContinuing their work with Scotland’s most prominent living composer, James MacMillan, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen here release the premiere recording of his exquisite new work Miserere. The Sixteen’s UK premiere of the Miserere at the 2010 Spitalfields Festival won both public and critical acclaim. Based on Psalm 51, the Miserere mei has been set to music many times over the centuries but few composers have tackled the complete text. |
Watch - Video trailers available for this item BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 29th October 2011 |
Building a Library - Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 |
 First ChoiceLondon Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis |
Disc of the Week |
 Bach, J S: Orchestral Suites Nos. 1-4, BWV1066-1069Freiburger Barockorchester |
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