Paul Lewis on BBC NEWS

[Guest]

I saw this today -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0108zv9/On_The_Road_With..._A_Concert_Pianist/

A day in a life with Paul Lewis before his recital at the Wigmore Hall

[amateur51]

Lordy!

Salymap'll go ber-esk!

[salymap]

Hi, I've just seen that. He is rather gorgeous and a very good pianist, but I'm much too old to go berserk over anyone. Well just a gentle cuddle perhaps

[amateur51]

Hi, I've just seen that. He is rather gorgeous and a very good pianist, but I'm much too old to go berserk over anyone. Well just a gentle cuddle perhaps

Nice idea salymap!

Who remembers Lady Constance de Coverlet (Tim Brooke-Taylor) who appeared regularly in episodes of BBC radio's I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again.

One of her stock lines when in the presence of a handsome young man was 'But soft ... ooooh AND cuddly!'

[salymap]

saly

[Pianorak]

I saw this today -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0108zv9/On_The_Road_With..._A_Concert_Pianist/

A day in a life with Paul Lewis before his recital at the Wigmore Hall

Thanks for posting. There is also a fascinating Wiki article on Hedi Stadlen, Matthew's grandmother.

[Mary Chambers]

Thank you for that link. A friend of mine was at the Wigmore concert, and they were told there were BBC News cameras there.

I thought Otto was rather lovely

[Richard Tarleton]

Thanks for posting. There is also a fascinating Wiki article on Hedi Stadlen, Matthew's grandmother.

and wife of Peter, no less - thank you for this, amazing what you learn on these MBs. A fine critic in the DT and occasional broadcaster on R3 in the old days , remember him talking about Beethoven's metronome markings.

A curious moment - just before Lewis went on, Stadlen shook his hand, to wish him luck - I'm sure (I haven't watched it again) Lewis hesitated for a nanosecond and a cloud flitted across his face.....presumably MS knew better than to give him a bonecrusher...

I saw a bit of another of these programmes, in which Stadlen trailed Elle Macpherson round for a day

[french frank]

I quite like the way Stadlen doesn't try to empathise or second guess what his interviewees are going to say (I've seen a few of the 5 minute ones). He allows them to talk freely without asking involved questions.

I'm sure performers are as different from each other in their concert likes and dislikes but I found Lewis's answer to the question about the long applause particularly interesting. He seemed to brush it aside as being secondary to his own feelings about how he'd performed, his own satisfaction. It was consistent with his feeling that the most important thing for him about being a concert pianist was the music and being able to dedicate so much time to it. Almost as if playing for an audience was his own way of paying back for the pleasure of being able to explore, discover and play.

(I much prefer this to performers who seem to need, want and demand plenty of applause as often as possible.)

Edit: I was impressed at the BBC putting together a programme like this - reaching 'a wider audience' - till I noticed that it went out at 10.30pm and 1.30am.

[Richard Tarleton]

.... He seemed to brush it aside as being secondary to his own feelings about how he'd performed, his own satisfaction. It was consistent with his feeling that the most important thing for him about being a concert pianist was the music and being able to dedicate so much time to it. Almost as if playing for an audience was his own way of paying back for the pleasure of being able to explore, discover and play.

Perfectly put ff - Lewis is a pianist who really does seem, above all, to be searching for something within himself. I've only seen him live once, early in his career, but this was very obvious. It was quite a profound experience, and the audience (in a small venue) responded accordingly.

A fascinating array of pianists - across the, erm, thoughtfulness spectrum, on display last week on Sky Arts 2 in the repeats of the Barenboim masterclasses.

[salymap]

I hope my earlier flippant response to Amateur51's remarks didn't detract from the fact that I think Paul Lewis a thoughtful and serious artist. He seems completely devoid of unnecessary showmanship, and gets to the heart of the music.

[french frank]

Lewis is a pianist who really does seem, above all, to be searching for something within himself. I've only seen him live once, early in his career, but this was very obvious. It was quite a profound experience, and the audience (in a small venue) responded accordingly.

When he finished playing at the Wigmore recital, he 'held' the audience for several seconds of complete silence before the applause. It looks like an affectation, eyes closed, hands still raised above the keyboard, but it's as if he's willing people to let the music fade in its own time. His concentration must have been so intense in that programme that it's what he wanted too. (Happily, the audience obliged )

I'm still not clear, with Lewis and others who say there was no/not much music at home during their childhood, how they get to the stage of being seriously good prospects. At 14 he was accepted for Chethams, but that's quite late compared with the hothouse prodigies who start their training at 4 years old.

[amateur51]

Bet you it was all down to classical music being cheaply available via Gramophone Libraries, french frank.

I suppose these days, Spotify et al may do the trick

Brendel's family wasn't musical either.

Let's hope so

[aeolium]

I was immensely impressed by Lewis' concert of the last three Schubert piano sonatas a few years back. I thought at the time that it was a very ambitious programme for someone relatively early in his career but it was a superb concert. I have heard that programme given by three other pianists in the last couple of decades, Brendel, Pollini and Uchida, and it says a lot that Lewis' performance compared favourably with all of these. [Incidentally I have another chance to hear the last three Schubert sonatas in Cheltenham on Thursday with Steven Osborne at the keyboard].

[amateur51]

I was immensely impressed by Lewis' concert of the last three Schubert piano sonatas a few years back. I thought at the time that it was a very ambitious programme for someone relatively early in his career but it was a superb concert. I have heard that programme given by three other pianists in the last couple of decades, Brendel, Pollini and Uchida, and it says a lot that Lewis' performance compared favourably with all of these. [Incidentally I have another chance to hear the last three Schubert sonatas in Cheltenham on Thursday with Steven Osborne at the keyboard].

There's that extraordinary story ( I do hope that I've got this right) of Schnabel & Rachmaninov's meeting at EMI's Abbey Road studios. Rachmaninov asked Schnabel what he was doing there to which Schnabel replied that he'd just been recording some piano sonatas by Schubert. And Rachmaninov said that he hadn't realised that Schubert had written any piano sonatas ...

And now we have Schnabel's Schubert performances available on CD, download and on Spotify, plus CDs from all the artists you mention aeolium plus they're being played in concert quite frequently.

In many ways, we're living in a golden age. I'm so grateful