Paul Lewis, English pianist, performs a rarity, Schubert's final three ...

Here?s a chance of a lifetime: hearing all three final piano sonatas of Franz Schubert, live. Very few pianists perform them together because of their enormous length and emotional depth. There's nothing comparable in the other performing arts, but it's sort of like an actor performing the soliloquies of Hamlet, Lear and Othello.

But on Oct. 22, Paul Lewis, an English pianist of great acclaim, will perform the magnificent Sonatas in C Minor, A Major and B-Flat Major on the Portland Piano International series. These are among Schubert?s most personal works, written in the last months of his short life, and contain daring breaks from the past, both in their vast structures and emotional intimacy. Listening to them is like overhearing private conversations.

Shed your 21st-century impatience at the door. And your watches. Each sonata is a lengthy journey that unfolds with many repetitions, circlings back and false endings.

Lewis, born in Liverpool in 1972, studied with the great Alfred Brendel. He performed all 32 of the Beethoven piano sonatas on tour in the United States and Europe between 2005 and 2007 and is the only pianist to perform all five Beethoven piano concertos at the BBC Proms in London.

His Schubert concert promises to be a highlight of the season.

The Guardian has a lengthy and insightful interview with him.

-- David Stabler

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2012/08/paul_lewis_english_pianist_per.html

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