Angela Hewitt
Program
- François Couperin: Dix-huitième ordre (Pièces de clavecin. Troisième livre)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Sonata in B flat major KV 281
- Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV 894
- Johann Sebastian Bach: English Suite No.4 in F major BWV 809
- Johann Sebastian Bach: Passacaglia in C minor BWV 582 (arr. Eugen d'Albert)
Interprets
- Angela Hewitt - piano
Instead of Maria João Pires, Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt will perform at the Rudolfinum on November 6.
Tickets remain valid.
Angela Hewitt
Never since the Canadian Glenn Gould has there been an artist who has placed Bach interpretations on the modern concert piano at the centre of their work as much as Gould’s compatriot, Angela Hewitt. For her multifaceted and long-standing commitment to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, for her genuine impact as a Bach ambassador all over the world, and her benchmark Bach interpretations on the concert grand piano, she became the recipient of the 2020 City of Leipzig Bach Medal, a prestigious distinction bestowed upon her as the first woman to be awarded this prize in its 17-year history.
“Hewitt and Bach are clearly a match made in heaven,” concludes Gavin Dixon on theartsdesk.com in his review of her performance of two English Suites in London’s Wigmore Hall in October 2019. “My journey with Bach began from the day I was born, if not before,” the pianist tells us on her website. Her father was music director and organist at Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa and Angela was surrounded by Bach’s music her whole life.
Angela Hewitt has demonstrated to her listeners that playing Bach on the modern grand piano is just as legitimate as performing the music on a period keyboard instrument in a historically informed interpretation. And she had the fortitude to go further. If Bach, why not also Couperin on the modern piano? Purists may have been alarmed but she won her case. Her first of three albums of Couperin dance suites from the collection Pièces de clavecin (Hyperion, 2002) became a bestseller. “By turning her attention to these works, Angela Hewitt may succeed in reviving and popularising Couperin’s enchanting music as no modern-day harpsichordist has been able to do” (Gramophone magazine). Baroque music is a mainstay of her broad repertoire, which incorporates key piano literature dating from the 17th to the 20th century. She is currently completing her next recording project – a sixteen-year endeavour overall involving recordings of all 32 Beethoven sonatas; the final CD in the cycle (Opp. 106 and 111) will be released on the Hyperion label in 2022. Her latest album Love Songs, a product of the lockdown featuring piano arrangements of some of the best known love songs spanning the centuries, became a huge hit in Great Britain.
