Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition / Schumann: Fantasie Op. 17 Paul Lewis

• Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881): Pictures At An Exhibition
• 1Promenade. I. The gnome03:53
• 2Promenade. II. The old castle05:18
• 3Promenade. III. The Tuileries Gardens (Children quarrelling after playing)01:27
• 4IV. Bydlo.03:00
• 5Promenade. V. Ballet of the unhatched chicks01:49
• 6VI. Samuel Goldenberg und Schmüyle.02:19
• 7Promenade. VII. The marketplace in Limoges02:40
• 8VIII. The catacombs02:21
• 9With the dead in a dead language (Promenade). IX.The hut on fowl's legs (Baba Yaga)05:19
• 10X. The great gate of Kiev05:34
• Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Fantasie Op. 17 in C major
• 11I. Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen12:18
• 12II. Mäßig. Durchaus energisch08:10
• 13III. Langsam getragen. Durchweg leise zu halten10:26
• Total Runtime01:04:34

Info for Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition / Schumann: Fantasie Op. 17

In 1870, the architect, sculptor and painter Viktor Hartmann (born in 1834) was invited by Vladimir Stasov, the most influential Russian art critic of his time, to join the ‘Group of Five’, a St Petersburg-based circle of composers that, in addition to Mussorgsky, included Borodin, Balakirev, Cui, and Rimsky-Korsakov. The members of this ‘Mighty Handful’ had set themselves the spiritual task of establishing a national Russian music free of western influences. Just three years later, in August 1873, Hartmann died of an aneurysm; he was not yet 40. ‘What misfortune! O greatly suffering Russian art!’ wrote the deeply affected Mussorgsky, lamenting the loss of his friend. Along with Stasov, he championed the cause of a memorial exhibition in honour of his intellectual fellow-spirit. Stimulated by this much-admired retrospective, in the spring of 1874, which presented some 400 pictures from different phases of the artist’s creative career, Mussorgsky decided to erect a musical monument to the dead man as well. He threw himself feverishly into the work. When the piano cycle was completed on 22 June 1874, the manuscript bore the inscription: ‘Dedicated to Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov. Pictures at an Exhibition. In Memory of Viktor Hartmann.’ Mussorgsky created here something subtler and more ambivalent than Hartmann’s paintings might suggest.

Alongside the dazzling virtuosity they call for, Paul Lewis’s unexpected coupling reveals the purely musical qualities of these two 19th-century masterpieces.

Lewis's latest recording, Schubert's Late Piano Sonatas, completed his acclaimed Schubert cycle, prompting Gramophone to call him 'one of the great Schubertians of our time.' The album reached No. 9 on the Billboard Classical Chart and made The 2014 Want List in Fanfare Magazine. His multi-award winning discography for harmonia mundi includes the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, concertos, and the Diabelli Variations, Liszt's B minor Sonata and other late works, and all of Schubert's major piano works from the last six years of his life, including the 3 song cycles with tenor Mark Padmore.

'Time and again, you marvel at the confidence and sureness of Lewis's playing... It's the kind of playing, in fact, where comparisons cease to matter.' (Gramophone)

Paul Lewis, piano

Paul Lewis
is internationally regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. His recent cycles of core piano works by Beethoven and Schubert have received unanimous critical and public acclaim worldwide, and consolidated his reputation as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the central European classical repertoire. His numerous awards have included the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year, two Edison awards, three Gramophone awards, the Diapason D'or de l'Annee, the Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and the South Bank Show Classical Music award. In 2009 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Southampton.

He performs regularly as soloist with the world's great orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, and the Royal Concertgebouw, Tonhalle Zurich, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Philharmonia, and Mahler Chamber Orchestras, in collaboration with such conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Stephane Deneve, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Bernard Haitink, Pablo Heras-Casado, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Sir Charles Mackerras, Andris Nelsons, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Robin Ticciati. He is also a frequent guest at the world's most prestigious festivals, including Lucerne, Mostly Mozart (New York), Tanglewood, Schubertiade, Salzburg, Edinburgh, La Roque d’Antheron, Rheingau, Klavier Festival Ruhr, and London’s BBC Proms where in 2010 he became the first pianist to perform a complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle in one season.

Paul Lewis’ recital career takes him to venues such as London's Royal Festival Hall, Alice Tully and Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Tonhalle Zurich, Palau de Musica Barcelona, Oji Hall in Tokyo, Melbourne’s Recital Centre, and the Sydney Opera House.

His multi-award winning discography for Harmonia Mundi includes the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, concertos, and the Diabelli Variations, Liszt’s B minor Sonata and other late works, and all of Schubert’s major piano works from the last six years of his life, including the 3 song cycles with tenor Mark Padmore. Future recording plans include the Brahms D minor piano concerto with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding, and solo works by Mussorgsky and Schumann.

Paul Lewis studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London 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

Booklet for Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition / Schumann: Fantasie Op. 17