Bach: Six Partitas

Angela Hewitt (piano)

Toen Angela Hewitt in 2014 de kans kreeg om over een periode van vier jaar alle solopianowerken van Bach uit te voeren in de Londense Wigmore Hall, was haar eerste reactie om het aanbod af te slaan. Vandaag beschouwt zij deze laatste "Bach odyssee" als een hoogtepunt in haar leven. Ze vond het nooit erg om zo sterk geassocieerd te worden met Bach. Aangezien haar eerste opname van de Partita's meer dan twintig jaar geleden was, vond zij het tijd om ze opnieuw op te nemen - ditmaal op haar eigen Fazioli vleugel en in de prachtige akoestiek van het Gustav Mahler Cultureel Centrum in Dobbiaco. Een herhaling van zetten? Helemaal niet.

‘Brilliant, well-sounding, expressive and always new’ was the verdict of Bach’s first biographer on the six Partitas, a description which applies equally to Angela Hewitt’s wonderful new recording of what Bach designated his ‘Opus 1’. Angela describes a lifetime of living with Bach’s music as ‘a great gift and a lifelong adventure’; an adventure in which we are fortunate to have such an authoritative companion and guide.

Bach, J S:
 Partita No. 1 in B flat major, BWV825
 Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV826
 Partita No. 3 in A minor, BWV827
 Partita No. 4 in D major, BWV828
 Partita No. 5 in G major, BWV829
 Partita No. 6 in E minor, BWV830

"The Sarabande of No 1 seeks the eternal while No 2 has a different profundity, housed in C minor. The Sixth is the summit of both Bach’s Partitas and Hewitt’s readings, Bach soliloquising (perhaps, as Hewitt suggests, in conversation with his god). Hewitt’s Fazioli is perfectly calibrated. All the core traits of Hewitt’s Bach are here: clarity, focus, devotion."
International Piano - December 2019

"While Hewitt’s stylish integrity, superb finger independence and deep feeling for the music’s roots in dance remains a constant, there’s now a greater level of interplay between hands, with added variety of articulation and rhythmic flexibility...One also perceives more expressive gestures by way of dynamic hairpins, caesuras, breath pauses and myriad accentuations that will strike listeners as either spontaneous or self-aware, depending on personal taste."
Gramophone Magazine - December 2019

"To hear this wonderful music played by Hewitt with such a remarkable sense of style and poise on a concert grand is a special treat for listeners of all persuasions…Hewitt sounds completely immersed in the music’s expressive soundworld, as well as its peerless structural logic…Yet, what impresses most is Hewitt’s sheer joy and sense of wonder in Bach’s creative genius."
BBC Music Magazine - February 2020 *****

"Her approach to this music is simply ideal: As she goes forward translating harpsichord into piano, we are always aware of the choices
she is making, especially those of dynamics and rubato; but at the same time she is able to allow herself to be swept away by the beauty and power intrinsic in the music, no matter which instrument is used to transmit it."
Fanfare - May/June 2020