Trills, Beethoven, and The Secret of Chopin: Paul Lewis Gives Masterclass at SFCM

Students Hyojin Shin,Yi-Chen Feng, and Parker Van Ostrand received coaching from Lewis, known for his expertise with Schubert and Beethoven.

November 26, 2024 by Alex Heigl

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Paul Lewis and Parker Van Ostrand (foreground).

Pianist Paul Lewis, hailed as “one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the central European classical repertoire,” visited SFCM in November for a masterclass with students. Made up of less than 50 students, the SFCM Piano Department prides itself on individualized attention, extraordinary instruments—including New York and Hamburg Steinway Ds in every concert hall—and unique interdepartmental collaborations.

Lewis is the latest in a long and growing list of guest-artist residencies and piano masterclasses which have included Yuja Wang, Leon Fleisher, Sergei Babayan, Stephen Hough, Richard Goode, Menahem Pressler, Emanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Daniil Trifonov.

Piano students Hyojin Shin,Yi-Chen Feng, and Parker Van Ostrand performed Beethoven’s Bagatelles, Op. 126, Rachmaninoff’s Moments Musicaux, Op. 16, and Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52, respectively. See photos from the event, with some of Lewis’ best takeaways, below.

“Almost always, think of trills as part of the melody. The melody note comes first, then the trill, not too fast; you want each note in the trill somehow connected to the melody.”

“What Beethoven's so good at is leading us to believe something and then doing something completely different.”

“This uses the whole keyboard: Give us more of a sense of that, just take a bit of time for us to feel the distance there. Because it felt normal, expected, like it was easy for you to play. Give us the feeling that this is taking some effort.”

“A feature of Beethoven's music is humor, but the way he uses humor is often quite brutal.”

“[Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52] is, I think, the closest Chopin gets to this idea of endless melody. There's no real end. There's no resolution. If you come to the end of the phrase, it's only to go on to something else.”

“Beethoven writes orchestral music for the piano, Schubert writes vocal music for the piano. But Chopin writes piano music for the piano, which is occasionally vocal."

“The secret about Chopin is that nothing he wrote is difficult. Everything he wrote works wonderfully well if you're just relaxed and free enough to do it. But we get in the way of that ourselves, so if you're feeling restricted in some way then you're only restricted by yourself.”

“Don't let your fingers do too much. Don't do too much on each individual key and don't lean in and try too hard; just let it happen. These instruments are built to project to 2,000-plus seats.”

“Listen to your sound. If you think you can hear it getting a little bit tight, just take a step back from it, and don't try so hard.”

“When we get into ‘pianist mode,’ we want certain things to be pronounced or heard more. But keep in mind the sort of bell-like quality we can draw from the piano; don’t listen so much in pianist mode.”