Festival de Valloires - Août 2008

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Paul Lewis, piano

Paul Lewis is one of the most sought after artists of his generation, appearing regularly at the world’s major musical venues and festivals. He studied with Ryszard Bakst at Chetham's School of Music and Joan Havill at the Guildhall in London, after which he received regular coaching from Alfred Brendel. After many competition successes, including the 1994 London International Piano Competition, he was selected for the BBC’s inaugural “New Generation” artist scheme, and was chosen by the Wigmore Hall for the European Concert Halls Organisation’s “Rising Stars” Scheme. His highly acclaimed Schubert piano sonata series, presented at venues throughout the UK, including the Wigmore Hall, won him both the South Bank Show Classical Music Award, and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award in 2003, and his recordings for Harmonia Mundi have won many international awards including 2 successive Edison awards in Holland in 2004 & 2005. More recently he was awarded the 25th Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. Between 2005 and 2007 he performed and recorded a complete cycle of the Beethoven piano sonatas venues across Europe and the US.

His recent international schedule has included recital and concerto debuts throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia. He has also appeared regularly at the BBC Proms, including the televised “Last Night” in 2005, and at both the Cheltenham and the Edinburgh international festivals, the Schubertiade Festival in Schwarzenberg, the Roque d’Antheron Festival, and both the Risor and Vancouver Chamber Music Festivals. He has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the London Symphony, Vienna Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, The Hallé, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, CBSO, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Kammerphilharmonie, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, and Seattle Symphony, under such conductors as Bernard Haitink, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Mark Elder, Sir Charles Mackerras, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Marin Alsop, Ivor Bolton, Richard Hickox, Emmanuel Krivine, Joseph Swensen, Vassily Sinaisky and Gerard Schwarz. As a much sought-after chamber musician, he has performed with Ernst Kovacic, Adrian Brendel, Steven Osborne, the Sine Nomine Quartet, and the Leopold String Trio.

In addition to his Beethoven Sonata series, the last two seasons also included concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink, the London Philharmonic, Mozart’s Concerto for 2 Pianos with Till Fellner at the 2006 BBC Proms, and a nationwide recital tour of Australia for Musica Viva. This season’s plans include opening the 2007 Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, concerts in New York and Chicago with the LSO and Sir Colin Davis, a European tour with the Bournemouth Symphony and Marin Alsop, the start of a complete Beethoven Concerto cycle in Liverpool, concerts with the Orquesta Sinfonica Castilla y Leon in Spain, the SCO, and Collegium Musicum Copenhagen, recitals in the US, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Sweden and Japan, a tour with the Leopold String Trio, and lieder concerts with Mark Padmore.

Paul Lewis’s recordings for Harmonia Mundi include two Schubert CDs, the first winning a Diapason d’or de l’année in France in 2002, and the second the 2004 Edison Instrumentalist Award in Holland. His third disc for them featuring the Liszt sonata, also won the Edison Instrumentalist Award in 2005. The first CD of his complete series of Beethoven Sonatas was released in September 2005, and the second volume, a triple CD box set, in October 2006. The final two triple box sets will be released during the 2007-2008 season. He has also recorded both Mozart Piano Quartets and Schubert’s Trout Quintet with the Leopold String Trio for Hyperion Records.