Angela Hewitt in Beverly Hills, a Hopeless Romantic for Bach
/By Truman C. Wang
2/26/2020
Photo: Classical Voice
Angela Hewitt began her “Bach Odyssey” in September, 2016, performing the complete keyboard works of Bach in a series of 12 recitals. The Beverly Hills concert on February 23, 2020 was number 11, which will be followed by the final Art of Fugue in June 2020.
For over two decades, Ms. Hewitt has been known among a small group of classical music connoisseurs as a specialist on the music of J.S. Bach, played on her Italian-made Fazioli piano (model F278). That piano, alas, suffered an ignoble demise at the hands of a careless piano mover earlier this year, garnering Ms. Hewitt instant worldwide celebrity that she did not crave for, but which no doubt has helped the sales of her recordings and concert tickets.
The recital at the Wallis in Beverly Hills was a full house, attended by a rapt, enthusiastic audience. Two hours of Bach is hardly anyone’s idea of a good time, but with artistry like this, one came away feeling the joy of rediscovering an old friend.
Starting with the Four Duets (BWV 802-805), written for the harpsichord with two keyboards, Ms. Hewitt fearlessly played them on a single keyboard while avoiding jumbled fingers. The contrapuntal lines of the 2nd and 4th duets were elegantly spun with bell-like voicing, while the lyrical 1st and 3rd duets gently swayed in dance rhythms.
Eighteen Little Preludes (BWV 924-928, 930, 933-938, 939-943, 999) lasted 25 minutes and contained within each tiny piece a wealth of colors and emotions that were possible only on a modern piano. There was plenty of energy and exuberance, but also moments of quiet contemplation. The final piece flowed out of Ms. Hewitt’s fleet fingers in tender loving caresses.
Fantasia and Fugue in A minor (BWV 944) started in a romantic vein, before launching into a brilliant weaving together of contrapuntal lines, made possible in part by Ms. Hewitt’s powerful left hand.
After the intermission, we were treated to some old friends: The French Overture (BWV 831) and the Italian Concerto (BWV 971). The playing was again brilliant, energetic, compelling and, above all, uniquely romantic in its lilt and pointed dance rhythms. Those were the same qualities in Hewitt’s Goldberg Variations that won me over 12 years ago. Her piano for this recital was a Steinway, a warmer, more romantic-sounding instrument than the Fazioli, all the better for conveying the romanticism of Bach.
The encore, a piano transcription of Bach’s “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” (Sleepers Wake) by Wilhelm Kempff, once again had Ms. Hewitt lovingly caressing the music and showing us a glimpse of heaven.
Truman C. Wang is Editor-in-Chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, other Southern California publications, as well as the Hawaiian Chinese Daily. He studied Integrative Biology and Music at U.C. Berkeley.