By Dave Read (July 31, 2022 concert) – Paul Lewis completed his Beethoven weekend with the matinee performance of Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, having performed 2 & 3 and 1 & 4 on Friday and Saturday nights.
In two respects, at least, Mr. Lewis is an outlier – he was born in England and now is a citizen of Ireland, and, at fifty, he is only ten years removed from his BSO and Tanglewood debuts. English emigres usually settle in America, and virtuosi usually make their classical music debuts before they are old enough to vote!
The artistry displayed by Mr. Lewis seems to include some measure of alchemy, as it makes the piano sound at once as large as the orchestra and a moment later no bigger than a zither.
The bright sunny Berkshires day, with a breeze off Stockbridge Bowl, is the ideal milieu for the wander amid one’s imagination impelled by the music of Ludwig von Beethoven. What a treat to have the great man’s work made manifest by such artists as Mr. Lewis, Maestro Nelsons, and the Boston Symphone Orchestra – how could any but the loftiest of thoughts and feelings result?
They cannot, if we’re left alone with the music; when we read Jan Swafford’s program notes, however, we’re reminded how contemporary all great thinkers are:
“What a destructive, disorderly life I see and hear around me, nothing but drums, cannons, and human misery in every form.” Thus spake Beethoven two centuries ago, and thus speak admirers of his music today.