Paul Lewis

'His weighting and voicing of chords has thought, and perfection abounds in everything he does. He is a true poet of the piano.'
– InReview

Following the success of parts one and two in February 2023, Paul Lewis returns to UKARIA to complete his landmark Schubert cycle, in which he performs the complete sonatas in four concerts over two years in leading venues across the globe, from London's Wigmore Hall to the Oslo Opera House and the Sala São Paulo in Brazil.

‘Schubert’s completed piano sonatas take us on a unique and heart-wrenching journey through the last 12 years of his life. From the charming lyricism of the early sonatas to the transcendent creativity of the late masterpieces, via harrowing moments of despair as his health started to decline. The sonatas express with directness and sincerity some of the most fundamental elements of human experience – longing, consolation, despair, joy, loss, nostalgia, and hope. In our time, his music is as essential and poignant as ever.’

– Paul Lewis

'Art should forget its constraints, mix the disparate, be unreasonable, want more than it can do and do more than anybody can want. Boundless is beautiful. [...] Where Schubert's music used to appear too long, suddenly it cannot be long enough.'
– Alfred Brendel (b. 1931)


Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Sonata No. 19 in C minor, D. 958 (32')

I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Menuetto. Allegro – Trio
IV. Allegro

Sonata No. 20 in A, D. 959 (40')

I. Allegro
II. Andantino
III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace – Trio: Un poco più lento
IV. Rondo. Allegretto – Presto


INTERVAL


Sonata No. 21 in B flat, D. 960 (36')

I. Molto moderato
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace con delicatezza – Trio
IV. Allegro ma non troppo – Presto