Hello,
I am gonna keep this short.
I just want to point that pianist Paul Lewis seems to be crowned as a big star of the present generation.
The name Lewis immediately recalls mastership and great pianistic talents.
I don’t really agree with this axiom.
As for Lang, Lewis not really showed his broad talents in any of the major competitions. Ok. I know, this is not a must, but the big names all scored in the top 3 of any of the big 5 competitions.
The demands there are sometimes supernatural.
Mr. Lewis just won London international, and got name and fame under the wings of Brendel.
His repertoire as I see it, is fairly limited to german mainstream masterpieces.
But also here , he sounds to me like a Brendel copy.
Hearing JM Pires play Schubert, it reminds me of the rather cold Brendel approach Lewis takes.
Pires a poetic master for Schubert. Needed. Not Lewis.
He is next, far from bringing russian repertoire, or even French.
His fellow Grosnevor and older English masters like Stephen Hpugh achieve greater hights.
Not to mention HoWard Shelley playing practically all concertos, known and unknown.
Lewis has still a long way to walk. It will be a Winterreise I think.
Now artistic director of the Leeds competion, as Lang. How cynical