Lewis has the full measure of the work's epic scale, creating a real sense of cumulative growth as he navigates us through its extraordinary narrative...Unashamedly exploiting the warmth and power of the modern piano, Lewis marshals a wide dynamic range and employs a considerable variety of touch and timbre...[and] draws particular attention to the radical, almost modernistic nature of Beethoven's writing.

Lewis tells us that the Diabellis are a set of variations like no other. He romps through the opening theme, Beethoven's 'sfz' left-hand asides articulated like raucous, tailgating trombones. Individual variations are masterfully controlled...but Lewis's concept of the whole - how Beethoven seeds ideas that blossom later - makes this performance especially cogent and satisfying.

Nothing in music is more exhilarating than a good performance of the Diabelli Variations, and this one is exceptionally good — torrential but controlled, and intensely lyrical. Never has Beethoven’s monument to creative invention seemed less forbidding. In Lewis’s hands, it gives the sense — despite all its intellectual mastery — of being like a gigantic piece of improvisation...The disc is a delight.

The playing possesses all the dynamism and discretion, the insight and immediacy, that Lewis poured into that grand project of encompassing all 32 of the sonatas, and is essential listening...[Lewis] is a master of characterisation, pointing up Beethoven’s inventiveness as well as his architectural acumen, and playing with palpable concentration and, in the slower variations, with sublime intensity.

Lewis’s interpretation mixes high drama and poetic aplomb — characteristics of a serious musician, flexing his muscles...Faced with Diabelli’s theme, many pianists stay content with a relatively uninflected reading but Lewis colours the notes with romantic panache, the left-hand bass strongly emphasised, the right-hand fingering almost hurtling, as if he’s panting to get to the real meat, the 33 variations.

he is at his considerable best in those variants that promote grandeur, volatile outbursts, and depth of feeling...Lewis’s performance is superbly recorded (in Berlin’s Teldec Studio), the instrument captured with immediacy, the pianist’s dynamic panache and variety of touch faithfully preserved.

Paul Lewis has the fingers and mind to cope with Beethoven’s undertaking, though he does so in a straight-spined way that emphasises earnestness at the expense of good humour and wit.

Of the many recordings that Beethoven’s exquisite variations have enjoyed over the years, few are as rich in nuance, nimbleness and sheer musical acumen as Paul Lewis’ already-celebrated reading, which must now count as definitive.