Monday 12 October, 2026

Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday)

Musica Viva has been bringing world class chamber musicians to Australian audiences for over 80 years, and tonight’s guest is no stranger to the chamber music devotees in attendance at the City Recital Hall. For British pianist, Paul Lewis, this is at least his 4th Australian tour and he brings us a program called Mozart+. In this program Lewis draws connections between three of the great composers for keyboard – Mozart, Poulenc and Debussy.

The concert was bookended with two Mozart Sonatas – No.10 in C major and No.14 in C minor. Composed only a year apart, they could not have been more different. The light lyrical simplicity of the C major sonata is typical of Mozart’s light-hearted ‘frivolous’ style, and in Lewis’ hands that sense of humour was clearly enunciated. The C minor sonata is an entirely different beast. The drama and the turbulence are given full-throated voice. In this sonata Mozart integrates the Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) style that was gaining traction at the time, as well as his early forays into the fantasia style of free-flowing recitative-like expression. Lewis’ technique in the trills and turns were a real surprise giving more drama and meaning to the music than I thought was possible. As the denouement of his musical argument for the night, in this sonata Lewis’ closing remarks summed up all that had gone before with such dramatic clarity.

The main body of the program comprised 15 improvisations by Francis Poulenc. Written over a 30 year period, these short piano pieces read like a musical diary for the composer. The list of dedicatees include fellow musicians, friends and patrons, as well as a few musicians he never met but admired greatly: Schubert and Edith Piaf. The styles ranged from bucolic meanderings in the French countryside, to skittish caprices and gentler lyrical meditations. Lewis was able to embody all these disparate elements with an empathy for the composer that showed a great love of and respect for his work. Poulenc’s humour (like Mozart’s) was deliciously on display, with poignant pauses at the end of some improvisations followed by a cheeky rapid 4 or 5 note conclusion that elicited several chuckles from the crowd. You could almost see Lewis smile at his ability to garner this reaction.

At the centre of the program was the glittering L’isle joyeuse by Debussy. In contrast to Poulenc’s writing, this work was unmistakably from the 20th Century with its fascination for the burgeoning modernism that was overturning classical musical thinking at the time. It predated Poulenc’s improvisations by several years, but Debussy’s experiment with new scales and harmonies was like a refreshing mountain breeze to our 2026 ears. In Lewis’ hands, this music painted clear images and thrilling cascades of notes, as opposed to just evoking moods.

And who do you invite for the encore after all that? Who else but the beloved relative who couldn’t attend the party – Frederic Chopin. The Nocturne in B major was the perfect choice displaying all the variety of styles and textures from the previous works, including dramatic juxtapositions of key, use of recitative-style expression and absolute lyrical perfection – none do it quite like Chopin.

Not only is Paul Lewis one of the great pianists of our time, but his intellectual narratives in his programming choices are unsurpassed. Thank you Music Viva for continuing to bring his skills to Australia, and let’s hope he can return in the not too distant future.