The very labelling of this concert – Paul Lewis and friends, was sufficient to invoke the idea of the Schubertiade, at which Franz Schubert and members of his circle got together to play for pleasure. And, since pianist Paul Lewis and his cellist wife Bjørg Lewis also run their own midsummer festival, this was a December evening that had the ambience both of Vienna and of summer, a delightful combination. The fact that violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky stepped in at the last-minute for Lisa Batiashvili gave an inkling of the Lewises’ Christmas card list.
Sitkovetsky joined Lawrence Power and Bjørg to open with Beethoven’s String Trio Op 9, No 3. They attacked it as if it were a symphony and, being in C minor and in no way small-scale, it is pretty much a workout for the future symphonist. The emergence of the instruments’ individual voices with such strength, together with the depth of feeling these players invested in the Adagio con espressione slow movement pointed far ahead into Beethoven’s future. Husband and wife then played the late C Major Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op 102 No 1, also with an acute sense of how early and late Beethoven relate, matching the expressiveness with a dark intensity.
The Austrian bassist Alois Posch joined the group for Schubert’s Trout Quintet D 667, essentially what the whole thing was about. Here we had the give and take of true musical friendship: delectable lyrical lines and precise detail all imbued with an air of spontaneity. Violist Power was a linchpin in the balancing of the instrumental dialogue, while Lewis managed the merging of piano colour into the overall palette with a refined sensibility, with relaxed cantabile melodies and scintillating passagework. The take-home message? If in doubt, give Schubert for Christmas.
On 22 December. Box office: 020 7935 2141. Venue: Wigmore Hall, London
