Turner Sims, Southampton
Pianist is a wonderfully unfussy and straightforwardly lucid interpreter of sonatas completed months before composer’s death
Over the last two years Paul Lewis has been working his way through Schubert’s piano sonatas, and he has now reached the fourth and last programme in his series. Logically enough it is devoted to the final three sonatas, in C minor, D958, A major D959, and in B flat, D960, a triptych that Schubert completed in September 1828, two months before his death.
Lewis is a wonderfully unfussy and straightforwardly lucid interpreter of these great works, judicious with his rubato, and never imposing unnecessary mannerisms on the music; whether structurally or texturally everything is consistently uncluttered. Turner Sims is a fine hall for piano recitals, and Lewis made the most of its clarity. And just as importantly, he was always at pains to allow the music the expressive space it requires, whether giving full weight to the silences that play such an important role in late Schubert, or letting the twists and shifts of the harmony work their magic.
The concert is repeated at the Wigmore Hall, London, on 22 and 24 March
