English pianist Paul Lewis has a recital to perform this Saturday, April 24, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. But the Tuesday flight he had booked from London to New York was canceled because of the spreading ash cloud from Iceland's volcanic eruption, and the best he could do to reschedule was standby on Saturday, the day of the concert.
So he found a flight from London to, of all places, Reykjavik, Iceland, from which he will then fly to New York, hopefully in time for the Saturday performance.
If all goes well, Paul Lewis will perform his only New York recital of the season at the Metropolitan Museum on Saturday, April 24, at 7:00 p.m., a program including Mozart's Adagio in B Minor, K. 540; Schumann's Fantasia in C Major, Op. 17; Liszt's Vallée d'Obermann; and Beethoven's Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53, "Waldstein."
For tickets, priced at $45, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949, or visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs are available. Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open Tuesday-Saturday 10-5:00, and Sunday noon-5:00. Student and group discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949. Tickets include admission to the Museum on day of performance.
Paul Lewis's recent recordings on the harmonia mundi label have earned notice and high critical praise: Schubert's Die Winterreise with tenor Mark Padmore; and the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, about which Gramophone magazine said, "one of the most highly prized recording marathons of recent years...an unmissable benchmark," and Hi-Fi News said, "already he can be ranked with such major interpreters as Kempff, Serkin, or Arrau."
Widely celebrated for his considered and profound interpretations of the classical repertoire, Paul Lewis is recognized internationally as one of today's most distinctive and poetic pianists. His many awards have included the Royal Philharmonic Society's Instrumentalist of the Year Award and the South Bank Show Classical Music Award, both in 2003, a Diapason d'Or de l'Année in France in 2002, two successive Edison awards in Holland in 2004 and 2005, and the Gramophone Instrumental Award and Record of the Year in 2008. In 2006 he was awarded the 25th Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. Between 2005 and 2007, he performed the complete Beethoven piano sonatas at venues throughout Europe and North America to great critical acclaim, and his recordings of the Beethoven cycle for harmonia mundi have received unanimous praise throughout the world. His recent disc of Schubert's Winterreise with Mark Padmore was featured as 'Editor's Choice Disc of the Month' in the November 2009 edition of Gramophone Magazine.
Highlights of Lewis's 2009-2010 season include concerts with the London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, his debut with the Gurzenich Orchestra in Cologne, a solo recital tour of Australia with Musica Viva, duo recitals with Mark Padmore and Steven Osborne, a recital at the Royal Festival Hall in 2010, a new recording of the Diabelli Variations for harmonia mundi, and the start of a two-year Schubert project from 2011.
A regular guest at many of the world's most prestigious venues and festivals, he has a particularly strong relationship with London's Wigmore Hall, where he has appeared on more than 30 occasions. He has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Charles Mackerras, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Andrew Davis, Marin Alsop, Dimitri Kitajenko, Daniel Harding, Adam Fischer, Richard Hickox, Emmanuel Krivine, and Joseph Swensen. Paul Lewis studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel. Along with his wife, the Norwegian cellist Bjørg Lewis, he is artistic director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.
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