Paul Lewis

The British pianist Paul Lewis, who was born in 1972 in Liverpool, initially studied cello before turning to piano at the age of 12. He received his piano training at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, subsequently continuing his studies privately with Alfred Brendel. With Brendel he shares a special predilection for the oeuvre of Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt, whose works he also performs in complete cycles. Lewis has partnered with the London and Boston Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; he has appeared no fewer than 50 times at London’s Wigmore Hall and has additionally performed at the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and the Zurich Tonhalle, as well as at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Tanglewood Festival, the Salzburg Festival, and the BBC Proms, where in 2010 he became the first pianist to play the complete Beethoven concertos in one season. Lewis’s schedule for the 2014–15 season includes concerts with the Swedish RSO under Daniel Harding, the Chicago Symphony under Vasily Petrenko, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic under Philippe Herreweghe, and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Andris Nelsons. As a chamber musician he will collaborate with the violinist Lisa Batiashvili and the tenor Mark Padmore. Lewis has garnered three Gramophone Awards and two Edison Awards as well as the Diapason d’Or and the German Record Critics’ Award for his recordings, among them the complete Beethoven sonatas. He received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2002 and, in 2006, the Premio Internazionale dell’Accademia Chigiana in Siena. Together with his wife, the Norwegian cellist Bjørg Lewis, he runs Midsummer Music, a chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 26 November 2000 playing works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert.

October 2014