Paul Lewis – review

This month marks the start of Paul Lewis's two-year-long, worldwide Schubert project: piano music from 1822 to 1828, the composer's last six years. In this recital, it was apparent that not only has Lewis's extended immersion in Beethoven – with cycles of the sonatas and the piano concertos under his belt – returned him fresh to Schubert, but that the influence of his collaboration on Schubert song cycles with tenor Mark Padmore has also deepened his focus.

Schubert was diagnosed with syphilis in 1822, and it is hard not to feel that a preoccupation with mortality lies at the heart of his outpourings, whether in the simplest, seemingly innocent utterances, or the most existential and lacerating. In the first half, Lewis deftly balanced the two-movement Sonata in C major D840 – named the Reliquie for its unfinished state – with the three Klavierstücke, D946, the latter sequence forming a sonata-like structure by way of compensation, with the central undulating barcarolle in E flat taking on a warm serenity.

Lewis's approach was understated, always letting the infinite succession of melody unfold naturally. The music was allowed to speak for itself without the imposition of overly self-conscious interpretative detail. What emerged all the more clearly as a result – particularly in this sympathetic acoustic – was an acute sense of Schubert's extraordinary harmonies, as well as the crucial milestones in his tonal landscape. The con moto movement of the Sonata in D major, D850, by turns gently lyrical and passionate, found Lewis at his compelling best, realising Schubert's song-like nature and, with it, some of the heartbreak.