Listeners who respond to the Apollonian, tightly structured Liszt Sonata recordings of Leon Fleisher, Clifford Curzon, and Alfred Brendel probably will like Paul Lewis. Putting grand rhetoric and showmanship on the back burner, Lewis takes care not to overproject Liszt’s careful dynamic and expressive indications while also preventing the introspective episodes from stretching out of shape. In addition, Lewis tints the mercurial central Fughetta with unexpected articulations and color shifts. Yet the overtly virtuosic passages fall short of the sweep and scintillation that distinguish Arrau, Argerich, Horowitz, Richter, and, among younger, more recent contenders, Yundi Li.
By contrast, Lewis is fully attuned to the bleak, stark sound world inhabiting Liszt’s late pieces, and he makes every note count. Listen to how he varies the left-hand tremolos in Nuages Gris through color and touch, or how he wrings maximum expressive dividends from the slow-moving scales that conclude the second La Lugubre Gondola. And Lewis acknowledges the lyrical qualities of the Four Little Pieces and En rêve without making them seem mawkish. Connoisseurs of late Liszt surely will want to check out this pianist.
