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Lewis is philosophical about the demands made on the international concert pianist. ‘Travel, certainly, is one of the major difficulties,’ he says. ‘I have three kids at home so that makes it really difficult to go away for long periods. But once I’m there, the adrenalin takes over and concentration becomes focused on the concert. I really love coming to Australia, although fighting jet lag prior to a performance makes it that much more of a challenge, particularly when the earliest I can arrive is only two or three days before a concert.’
Lewis did not come from a musical family. He didn’t even hear classical music at all when he was a small child in Liverpool, England. His parents continue to this day to be slightly bemused by the success of their son, as there were no musicians in the family that anyone knew of. His first experience of a keyboard came at the age of four, when a relative gave him a little single-octave organ for Christmas. Four years later his interest in music was growing and he borrowed recordings of Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven from the local library, including recordings by Alfred Brendel. This was to be a pivotal point in his life. ‘It’s just too strange to be a coincidence,’ he says, looking back. He could not possibly have guessed that one day he would receive lessons from the same pianist he admired so much as a youngster.
‘Brendel turned my whole conception upside down,’ he says of the time he spent studying with him throughout most of the 1990s. ‘I almost felt for a while that I could hardly play at all!’ At age 20, Lewis performed for Brendel during a masterclass at the Guildhall School of Music. Years of private lessons followed. ‘Brendel is an unconventional pianist,’ says Lewis, ‘his interests lie not only in piano music, but in repertoire beyond the piano. He would talk to me about lines within the music that can be related to orchestral or vocal lines, how one would sound like an oboe, or another like strings. His conception was of pure music, rather than just a piece for the piano.’ I ask him to what extent Brendel’s influence has been integrated into his own playing. ‘The responsibility rests with the student to find his or her own way and not to simply copy what you are told, which would be disastrous. Brendel would furnish me with me ideas, make suggestions and give his opinion. It was then up to me to find my own voice.’ I ask if that was difficult. ‘If you love the music’, he says, ‘it’ll happen naturally.’
Lewis takes this same philosophy when considering his own performances of the Beethoven piano sonatas, which he recorded recently on harmonia mundi. Of this set, critic Robert Levine wrote: ‘His interest is textual clarity, and he never fails in that approach.’ I ask Paul how, with so many Beethoven sonatas cycles available on CD, does one make an individual statement, and say something different about these landmark works? ‘If you love the music and concentrate on that alone, the possibilities are almost endless’ he replies. ‘It’s pointless to try to consider what has been done before or to concentrate on being different. With an honest approach and a love of the music itself, one’s own style naturally comes through.’ To learn, to perform and to record the Beethoven cycle is a marathon effort in itself, but was there any one sonata that stood out as the most difficult to play? ‘Without doubt, the Hammerklavier,’ replies Lewis. ‘It is the most difficult sonata in every way, musically, intellectually, physically and emotionally. It’s extreme, and what’s more, it’s relentless, there’s no resting place for the pianist.’
With an impressive catalogue of recordings, including Schubert, Beethoven and Liszt, what lies in the future for him? ‘I’m recording the Beethoven concertos later this year, I’ll also be recording Schubert lieder with Mark Padmore in 2010 and 2011.’ Lewis will then return to Schubert and record the mature piano works. As for the life of globe-trotting and the constant pressure of audience and critics’ expectations, his observation is very simple: ‘If you love music, and you’re earning your living from playing the piano in front of people, you’re very lucky indeed, because it’s a great privilege.’ |