Beethoven - Piano Sonatas Op.31
Paul Lewis
Harmonia Mundi HMC901902

Release date September 2005

Paul Lewis has decided to start his voyage through Beethoven’s piano sonatas with the Op. 31 group, a highly innovative trilogy of works written in 1802, between the Second and Third Symphonies. By now Lewis will probably be quite bored with being compared with Alfred Brendel, his one-time teacher, but I suppose it’s inevitable. Quite apart from the repertoire that he chooses to play, his approach has much in common with Brendel‘s; unexaggerated, dryly humorous and with formidable intellectual control. His Op. 31/1 nicely captures the first movement’s character of ‘compulsive, but scatter-brained, determination’ (Brendel), while his patient way with the finale of the Tempest sonata really pays dividends; although it is said to have been inspired by the sound of a galloping horse, Lewis‘s tempo reflects Beethoven’s marking of Allegretto (and anyway I don’t think that this strange movement has got anything to do with horses). This Beethoven cycle is off to a fine start.

Reviewed by Sandy Matheson