As a student, perhaps every pianist realises that wonderful technique is not a synonym for the quantity of notes played accurately per minute and that technique is just a tool for expressing what is in the music. To convey music’s meaning, one must perfectly master what is basically a percussion instrument so that it can be sometimes highly melodic, at other times percussive, and so that even when barely audible, the sound has carrying power despite its tenderness. One must understand that playing loudly can mean both colourful magnificence and brutal violence and that the piano is capable of thousands of degrees of tonal shading. Pianist Paul Lewis, who will lead the masterclass, enjoys mastery over all of the possibilities that the piano offers. And because his personality is bursting with musicianship, getting a chance for even a single consultation with this pianist can bring long-lasting inspiration for further efforts towards learning.
Those interested in active participation can apply by sending a CV (max. 900 characters) to the email address stehlikova@dvorakovapraha.cz by 31 July 2023. The age limit for participants is 25.
Public masterclasses are yet another way that the Academy of Classical Music at the Dvořák Prague Festival is working to promote the education of musicians. As an auxiliary programme in the series For the Future, it gives young musicians the chance to play before exceptional artists and to consult on their views on the interpretation of a work with performers who have invaluable experience on the world’s great stages. A masterclass is a unique opportunity for the public to witness the final phase of preparing an interpretation. Rather than a usual lesson, it is an exchange of artistic opinions. It gives an exciting insight into the final phase of a young artist’s preparation before the moment when her or she appears in the concert arena with a finished interpretive conception in order to share an artistic opinion with the public.
You can buy tickets to a masterclass for CZK 200. Ticket prices are reduced by 50% for students at elementary schools of the arts, conservatoires, the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and students at other schools of the arts. To get the discount code, please contact us at infopoint@dvorakovapraha.cz
"Lewis is a wonderfully unfussy and straightforwardly lucid interpreter of these great works, judicious with his rubato, and never imposing unnecessary mannerisms on the music; whether structurally or texturally everything is consistently uncluttered."
The Guardian
Paul Lewis is one of the foremost interpreters of the Central European piano repertoire, his performances and recordings of Beethoven and Schubert receiving universal critical acclaim. He was awarded a CBE for his services to music, and the sincerity and depth of his musical approach have won him fans around the world.
This global popularity is reflected in the world-class orchestras with which he works, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras. His close relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led to his selection as the 2020 Koussevitzky Artist at Tanglewood.
With a natural affinity for Beethoven, Lewis took part in the BBC’s three-part documentary Being Beethoven and performed a concerto cycle at Tanglewood in summer 2022. He has performed the cycle all over the world, and was the first pianist to play the complete cycle in a single season at the BBC Proms in 2010.
Beyond many award-winning Beethoven recordings, his discography with Harmonia Mundi also demonstrates his characteristic depth of approach in the Romantic repertoire such as Schumann, Mussorgsky, Brahms and Liszt.
Between 2022 and 2024, Lewis embarked on a Schubert Piano Sonata Series, presenting the completed sonatas from the last 12 years of Schubert’s life at venues around the world. The cycle continues into 2025, when he will also perform the premiere of a new piano sonata by Thomas Larcher.
In chamber music, he works closely with tenor Mark Padmore in lied recitals around the world – they have recorded three Schubert song cycles together – and he is co-artistic director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.
Awards
Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year; two Edison awards; three Gramophone awards; Diapason d’Or de l’Annee; South Bank Show Classical Music Award; honorary degrees from Liverpool, Edge Hill and Southampton universities; appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours
Recital venues
Royal Festival Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Musikverein, Konzerthaus, Théâtre des Champs- Élysées, Concertgebouw, Berliner Philharmonie and Berlin Konzerthaus
Festivals: Tanglewood, Ravinia, Schubertiade, Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lucerne
source: Maestro Arts
The Bohuslav Martinů Concert Hall is part of the historic Liechtenstein Palace, which is located directly opposite St Nicholas’s Church at the upper end of Malostranské náměstí (Lesser Town Square). With capacity for an audience of 200, it is used primarily for more intimate cultural events and for graduation recitals. Since 1993, the Liechtenstein Palace has been the site of the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
