Paul Lewis

1972 Born in Liverpool, on May 20. Starts playing the cello at the age of eight, and the piano at twelve.

1986 Accepted into Chetham’s School of Music, in Manchester, where he would be taught by Ryszard Bakst. Later he would attend the Guildhall school, under the tutelage of Joan Havill.

1994 His first international success comes with second prize at the 1994 World Piano Competition.

2000 Becomes professor of piano at Royal Academy of Music.

2001 Wins the Diapason d’Or with his first disc, comprising the Schubert sonatas D784 and D958.

2003 Wins the South Bank Show Classical Music Award, and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award, the result of a Schubert series performed around the UK. A second Schubert disc, of the final two sonatas, follows.

2005-2007 Embarks on complete Beethoven sonata series in concerts in the UK and USA, and in the recording studio.

2008 Final volume of Beethoven sonatas wins Instrumental Recording of the Year, and Record of the Year at the Gramophone Awards.

Paul Lewis: Winner of Record of the Year 2008

As the countdown to the 2009 Gramophone Awards continues, we look back at last year’s big winner.

Reviewing the final volume of Paul Lewis’s complete survey of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, Bryce Morrison wrote that it “surely gives you the best of all possible worlds; one devoid of idiosyncrasy yet of a deeply personal musicianship.” Individual though his playing may be, Lewis, like his mentor Alfred Brendel, aims to be as faithful to the written score as possible. Before setting out on his award-winning cycle, each disc of which was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice, he said he hoped “to present Beethoven with as little of me and anyone else as possible”. The result compares with Schnabel, Kempff, and Brendel.

As incisive a chamber musician as he is a soloist, Lewis has founded his own music festival with his wife, the cellist Bjørg Værnes, based in a tiny Buckinghamshire church. Focussing on the core Austro-German repertoire from Mozart to Liszt, among his next recordings will be Schubert’s Winterreise with Mark Padmore.

Essential discography

Beethoven Volume 1 Harmonia Mundi

Paul Lewis pf

> Lewis's first Beethoven disc
Beethoven Volume 2 Harmonia Mundi

Paul Lewis pf

> Lewis's second Beethoven volume
Beethoven Volume 4 Harmonia Mundi

Paul Lewis pf

> Gramophone Awards Record of the Year 2008
Schubert Sonatas D784 and D958 Harmonia Mundi

Paul Lewis pf

> Lewis's first disc
Schubert The Last Sonatas Harmonia Mundi

Paul Lewis pf

> Lewis plays Schubert's final sonatas
Liszt Piano Sonata, etc Harmonia Mundi

Paul Lewis pf

> Lewis plays Liszt's sonata
Mozart Piano Quartets Hyperion

Paul Lewis pf, Leopold String Trio

> Lewis in chamber music

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