Schubert, The Last Three Sonatas, Paul Lewis (piano)

A perfect May afternoon, a beautiful acoustic and Paul Lewis playing Schubert – my first Festival high! I’ve never heard all three sonatas at one time, and it’s a revelation. Composed during the astonishingly prolific last months of Schubert’s short life, they certainly contain drama, grief and impassioned questioning but they are also brimming with lightness and charm. Schubert knew he was dying young yet in these works he is living to the full. Paul Lewis captured this paradox, playing to a full house as if to one of Schubert’s parlour gatherings – intense, focussed and richly imaginative. What a brilliant programme!

Glyndebourne Opera House, 5 May 2013

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