Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1: Nos. 16, 17, & 18 ~ Lewis [Import]

Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Paul Lewis (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Paul Lewis
• Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
• Audio CD (November 8, 2005)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
• ASIN: B000A5B25W
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,895 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Beethoven Masterpieces, August 14, 2006

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Oldnslow (Seattle, Washington USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1: Nos. 16, 17, & 18 ~ Lewis (Audio CD)

Beethoven's three Op.31 piano sonatas are among my favorites of all his 32. They have everything--high drama (No.2, the "Tempest"), lyricism , and humor (Nos. 1 and 3). Lewis gives very persuasive performances of all three sonatas. I would describe his approach as generally lyrical, with beautiful flowing lines and a wonderful touch, almost Kempff like. Aided by one of the best piano recordings I have ever heard, this is a beautiful recital. I am looking forward to other volumes of Lewis cycle.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beethoven, Paul Lewis Volu 1, December 26, 2008

By 

Robert L. Mackenzie "Kiwi Bob" (Powell, TN United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1: Nos. 16, 17, & 18 ~ Lewis (Audio CD)

I actually purchased this "first" disc last because I was so satisfied with the other three volumes. Paul Lewis provides an interpretation which is without embellishment. If you desire a recording with much rubato and a highly "personal" interpretation then this disc is not for you. If you like your Beethoven straight this is your disc. His attention to detail provides many beautiful nuances which one becomes more ever more aware of with each additional listening.

This disc is highly recommended.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lewis starts his cycle with assurance and poise, but the "Tempest" isn't stormy, January 27, 2011

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Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1: Nos. 16, 17, & 18 ~ Lewis (Audio CD)

(Note: instead of reviewing Paul Lewis's Beethoven cycle as a whole, I'll write separate reviews of each installment. As it happens, when Harmonia Mundia assembled the box set of the complete sonatas, they retained the layout of each installment, so it makes even more sense to approach them invidivudally.)

I wonder if Paul Lewis's record label wanted to put their toes in the water by releasing Vol. 1 of his Beethoven cycle as a single disc? the succeeding installments contained three discs each, an expensive proposition for the buyer. It was easy to get hooked on Lewis from the very start, however. In a sense he's the Goldilocks of Beethoven players, not as light as Kempff, as detached as Brendel, or as erratic as Richter, but just right. That's too glib, however. It's remarkable for a pianist in his thirties to sound as accomplished as Lewis does. Two brilliant Schubert recordings proved his mettle, and he brings the same innate musical instincts to Beethoven. Without sounding at all studied, his phrasing is classically proportioned; without sounding idiosyncratic he gives a sense of spontaneity. Put those ingredients together and you have a rare result: MATURE PLAYING THAT SOUNDS ALIVE>

This single disc is devoted to the three sonatas of Op. 31, long beloved and often recorded. The named sonata in this group is No. 2, the 'Tempest,' and one can't escape that all the named sonatas are the ones that the public recognizes. Even so, all three are lovely representations of Beethoven at a decisive time when he could be elegant and even witty as well as tempestuous. Already thirty-one when he began to write the Op. 31 group in 1801 -- the first to appear was the 'Tempest,' although it is listed second -- and with fifteen sonatas behind him, Beethoven made a conscious, decided break with the classical past, declaring his high ambitions for a new style.

Lewis seems attuned to both the forward and backward looking aspects of this music. Unlike Richter, who attacked it with high Romantic fervor and revolutionary zeal, Lewis sees this as a balanced idiom, and he makes you smile where you're supposed to in Op. 31 no. 1, drolly echoing the bass trills that would crop up later in the Diabelli Variations, where it's hard to tell if Beethoven is joking or not (the next most famous bass trill would appear, quite mysteriously, in the opening of Schubert's monumental last sonata, D. 960 in B flat.) Lewis's biography notes that he studied with Brendel, but to me his playing sounds more like Richard Goode's or Murray Perahia's in its assured modesty, if I may coin a phrase.

I felt that Lewis was tempted to make the first sonata sound too uniform, but the 'Tempest' is a study in dramatic contrast. Here Lewis gives us a clue to his overall approach, because once again he is tempted to smooth out the variety of Beethoven's moods. After the brooding few bars marked Largo, he doesn't pounce on the stormy theme as he should, thus losing the intended effect. Serkin and Richter would never have made such a mistake, although the general taste nowadays, which has clearly influenced Lewis, is to reduce Beethoven to the scale of Haydn. Only in the finale does Lewis seem to catch a whiff of drama. Happily, he would go on later in his cycle to correct some of this reticence.

There's more life, thankfully, in the third sonata, where for the first time I felt that Lewis was as engaged as he was in his best Schubert. This music wears a crooked smile at times, and it also contains some of the sudden contrast as the Tempest. Keeping the line going without over-italicizing or, at the opposite extreme, ignoring Beethoven's many asides, is difficult. Lewis manages it very well -- a good sign for the sonatas to come. The galloping finale sounds almost as carefree and insouciant as it needs to be.

It doesn't bear saying that by undertaking a complete cycle, every pianist is subject to the criticism that there are ups and downs. When taken individually, one can find more captivating accounts of the Op. 31 sonatas, my favorites being by Richter, Glenn Gould, Schnabel, and Pollini. The young Lewis makes no claim t that kind of stature, but here in Vol. 1 he's off to an impressive start.