Back-to-back Beethoven With Renowned Pianist And The NZSO

Acclaimed English pianist Paul Lewis will perform Beethoven’s entire Piano Concerto cycle in three back-to-back concerts in Auckland with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra next month.

Lewis, highly regarded for his interpretations of Beethoven’s piano works, joins the NZSO directly from the United States just days after performing the Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle at the prestigious Tanglewood festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and a separate solo recital at the Aspen Music Festival.

The concerts on 12, 13 and 14 August, exclusively in Tāmaki Makaurau, are understood to be the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand that all Beethoven Piano Concertos are performed in the same city over three consecutive days.

NZSO Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor Gemma New will lead the Orchestra for all three concerts, which are part of the NZSO’s Immerse 2022 festival in association with nzherald.co.nz.

Lewis knows Beethoven’s Piano Concerto cycle inside out. He was the first pianist to perform all five concertos at the Proms in the UK. His later recording of the cycle with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was hailed by Gramophone magazine as “civilized, musically responsible and vital playing”.

“There’s definitely some kind of journey from the first to the last piano concerto,” Lewis has said. “I think it tells us very specific and valuable things about Beethoven. Each piece is completely unique.”

For Reverence, the second of the three concerts, New also leads the Orchestra for New Zealand composer Tabea Squire’s outstanding work Variations. For the third concert, Emperor, the programme finale is Rimsky-Korsakov’s exhilarating Scheherazade, a grandiose masterpiece which demands everything from the Orchestra.

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