Jean-Philippe Rameau - Keyboard Suites (Angela Hewitt)

Information

Composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau

• (01-09) Keyboard Suite in E minor
• (10-17) Keyboard Suite in G minor
• (18-30) Keyboard Suite in A minor

Angela Hewitt, piano
Date: 2007
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67597

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

For Rameau on the piano, Angela Hewitt proves just as gorgeous in her realizations as Tzimon Barto on Ondine, but with a million times the intelligence, stylistic awareness, and taste. Helped by her Fazioli concert grand’s bright edge, Hewitt demonstrates that the nooks and crannies of Rameau’s ornamentation not only work on the piano but also benefit from the instrument’s capacity for dynamic nuances. Hewitt’s varied articulation and tonal shading arise from the music’s dance origins and are never “pianistic” for their own sake. Sometimes Hewitt may taper a phrase to slightly precious effect or time a cadence with just a smidgen of archness, but her glorious rhythmic sense and crisply centered trills and mordents offer vivid compensation.

And if harpsichordists can shift registrations, why not Hewitt? I love how her repeats in Le rappel des oiseaux tweet and twitter an octave higher than in the score. Hewitt also discreetly enhances textures by placing certain bass notes down the octave. All told, this is the finest Rameau piano disc since Marcelle Meyer’s classic 1953 cycle, and I look forward to more. As usual, Hewitt’s annotations are well researched and reader-friendly, while Hyperion’s engineering is vivid and detailed, if slightly bass shy (I have not heard the SACD version). [3/27/2007]

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Jan07/Rameau_Hewitt_CDA67597.htm
http://www.classical.net/~music/recs/reviews/h/hyp67597a.php
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jan/05/classicalmusicandopera.shopping4
http://www.allmusic.com/album/rameau-keyboard-suites-mw0001856536
http://www.amazon.com/Keyboard-Suites-Jean-Phillipe-Rameau/dp/B000KGGHTM

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Jean-Philippe Rameau (25 September 1683 – 12 September 1764) was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François Couperin. Rameau's music had gone out of fashion by the end of the 18th century, and it was not until the 20th that serious efforts were made to revive it. Today, he enjoys renewed appreciation with performances and recordings of his music ever more frequent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Philippe_Rameau

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Angela Hewitt (born July 26, 1958 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a British/Canadian classical pianist. Hewitt has performed around the world in recital and as soloist with orchestra. She is most well known for her cycle of Bach recordings covering all the major keyboard works of J.S. Bach. Her discography also includes works by Couperin, Rameau, Messiaen, Chabrier, Ravel, Schumann, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy and Fauré. In recent years, she records using her own piano, a Fazioli F308 grand. Hewitt received Gramophone Artist of the Year award in 2006.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Hewitt

http://www.angelahewitt.com/

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