One critic colleague of mine used the word “prickly” to describe a live concert performance of Beethoven’s Op. 31 sonatas with pianist Paul Lewis. Did he mean “prissy”? The power, poetry, and directness I admire in Lewis’ best Schubert playing and in his excellent live Beethoven “Les Adieux” (brought out by BBC Music Magazine) have largely given way to gratuitous underlining and accentuations that often thwart the music’s continuity, along with a clipped style of executing loud chords that deprives them of the tonal body and visceral impact Beethoven intends.
Op. 31 No. 1’s first movement is a case in point. Here Lewis minimizes the off-kilter effect of Beethoven’s intentionally “de-synchronized” hands that Wilhelm Kempff assertively projects and with which Richard Goode imaginatively toys. The central slow movement’s left-hand staccato phrases come off as static blips, while Lewis envelops much of the finale in a haze of underarticulated, overpedaled arcs. The Tempest sonata’s first-movement dynamic surges generate no tension nor excitement via Lewis’ limited dynamic range and utter lack of energy, although the static, disembodied sonorities he brings to the slow movement certainly are in keeping with the music’s nature. While the finale begins well, Lewis’ extremely picky articulation of the cross-rhythms belabor the obvious. The way Lewis tiptoes around Op. 31 No. 3’s inner fire and rhythmic brio makes this young pianist sound old and tired–totally opposite of the greater dynamism and more assertive articulation you hear from Kempff in his 70s and Rubinstein at 89. If you prefer a larger-scaled Beethovenian profile than Kempff’s in these three works, Stephen Kovacevich provides infinitely more life, forward impetus, and red-blooded ardor than offered by Paul Lewis’ disappointingly pallid recreations.
