Glyndebourne Opera House, 5 May 2013

Sublime is an overused epithet but when one comes to sum up Paul Lewis’ performance of Schubert’s late piano works over the last two years there is really no other word that does them justice. On a radiantly sunny Sunday afternoon, with picnics out for the first time this year, he drew the cycle to a close with performances of the last three piano sonatas, D 958-60.

Hi stage presence is stark. Wearing black against Glyndebourne’s black fire curtain and a black piano he almost disappears, but this is fully in keeping with an approach which eschews histrionics and focuses entirely on the music.

The opening Allegro of the C minor sonata has strong Beethovian echoes but quickly mellows to a more romantic and gentler impact, moving seamlessly into the beautifully crafted Adagio, with its moments of authority and nobility. The Menuetto’s rapid figuration brought a return of tension which carried over into the final Allegro, where lighter moments only served to highlight the underlying anxiety.

The emotional range of the A major sonata is even greater than that of the C minor. The Allegro proved warmer than anything we had encountered in the previous sonata with even greater fluidity, though Paul Lewis also found an edgy undercurrent which seemed at one with the following Adagio. It was difficult to ignore the shadow of Winterreise which seems to hang over this movement, both in the cantabile opening and the contrasts between delicate phrasing and painful tensions, and a final chord which fails to settle. The Scherzo comes as something of a relief and prepares the way for the melodic outpouring of the final Rondo.

The Molto moderato which opens the B flat major sonata is more highly developed than anything we had previously heard this afternoon, and here it was the momentary silences, the stillness, which impressed, as if the music hesitates to speak. Unlike the earlier Rondo movement Schubert seems driven by the melody here, returning to it in ever more fascinating ways, toying with it in an almost improvisatory way. This mood continues into the Andante which frequently seems to blossom and fly as if released from the tensions which had underpinned so much of the earlier scores. The joy of the Scherzo led to the deeper warmth and extrovert enthusiasm of the final Allegro.

It has been a long journey, but Paul Lewis has taken us deep into Schubert’s heart in a way few musicians have ever done before. BH