Schubert: Works for piano, vol.2

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After his widely praised recordings of Schubert's late piano sonatas, British pianist Paul Lewis returns with another two-disc box covering the Wanderer-Fantasie in C major, Op. 15, the Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 845, and two sets of smaller works. Lewis was a student of Alfred Brendel and might be regarded as his chief protégé. As with Brendel, you come away from hearing his playing with the feeling that you've been given a great deal to chew on. In lyric passages he is straightforward and a little dry. This intentional, for the large slow movement of the D. 845 sonata, shows that Lewis can spin out a sustained passage of nearly static beauty when he thinks it necessary. But in general he is more interested in small details and in the relationship of part to whole. His tempi are brisk, with plenty of variation, and the longer pieces feel broken down into little sections in which it's true, you will hear surprising things you may not have noticed before in these pieces. Sterling results are obtained in the Wanderer-Fantasie, where each appearance of the main theme in its various guises is given a different weight without ever falling out of the long line Lewis gives to the entire work. In his hands, the work seems at once to be grappling with Beethoven and to look far into the future, which, one feels, is as it should be. The D. 845 sonata is also very strong, with richly complex readings of the two long opening movements. If there's a fault here it's that the Impromptus, D. 935, and the Moments Musicaux, D. 780, may lack a certain evanescence that most listeners will expect, but even here Lewis finds subtleties galore. Strongly recommended, as usual with this intelligent player.
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