Angela Hewitt – a familiar visitor to Australia and a highly represented recording artist (she has recorded the complete Bach keyboard works for Hyperion) – made this, an early recording, for Deutsche Grammophon upon winning the 1985 Toronto International Bach Piano Competition. They are natural, unforced and beautifully-turned performances of some of Bach’s most popular keyboard works. Having long been out of the catalogue, they now make a welcome return.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971
Toccata in C minor, BWV 911
Four Duets, BWV 802-805
English Suite No. 6 in D minor, BWV 811
Angela Hewitt, piano
‘I know of no musician whose Bach playing on any instrument is of greater subtlety, beauty of tone, persuasiveness of judgement or instrumental command than Hewitt’s is here’ BBC Music Magazine
‘It was a positive sensation. The Canadian pianist is one of the reliably mesmerising musicians of the day. You sit entranced… it would have been more accurate to say I was floating just below the ceiling. She seems to me the complete performer, gifted not only with fingers that imprint each note with a svelte newness and a mind that is not deflected by such precision work from calmly surmising the larger structure, but also with the ability to convey a spiritual seriousness that nonetheless does not exclude an utter charm’ The Sunday Times, on a 2003 Wigmore Hall recital
‘…justly weighted, technically controlled and eloquent’ MusicWeb
‘subtly proficient at emphasizing different voices… The sound quality is excellent, the piano sounding brilliant and clear within a spacious acoustic’ Fanfare
‘[Hewitt’s] playing is enormously alive and stimulating…These are exhilarating performances’ *** Penguin Guide