Johann Sebastian Bach - Toccatas (Angela Hewitt)

Information

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

1. Toccata in C minor, BWV 911
2. Toccata in G major, BWV 916
3. Toccata in F sharp minor, BWV 910
4. Toccata in E minor, BWV 914
5. Toccata in D minor, BWV 913
6. Toccata in G minor, BWV 915
7. Toccata in D major, BWV 912

Angela Hewitt, piano
Date: 2002
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67310

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Review

Stylish‚ impeccable playing from a pianist who wears her expertise lightly.

As Angela Hewitt tells us in her exemplary accompanying essay‚ Bach’s Toccatas were inspired by Buxtehude’s ‘stylus fantasticus – a very unrestrained and free way of composing‚ using dramatic and extravagant rhetorical gestures’. For Wanda Landowska‚ they seemed initially ‘incoherent and disparate’ and it takes an exceptional artist to make such wonders both stand out and unite. Yet Angela Hewitt – always responsive to such a teasing mix of discipline and wildness – presents even the most audacious surprises (the close to the G major‚ the chromatic grandeur in the Adagio from the F sharp minor‚ etc) with a superb and unfaltering sense of balance and perspective. Time and again she shows us that it is possible to be personal and characterful without resorting to self­serving and distorting idiosyncrasy. Everything is delightfully devoid of pedantry or over­emphasis; few pianists have worn their enviable expertise in Bach more lightly. How scrupulously she observes Bach’s moderato qualification in the C minor Toccata’s Allegro fugue‚ how delicate and precise her way with the same fugue’s return. Again‚ in the F sharp minor Toccata everything is meticulously graded‚ and in the dazzling D major Toccata‚ which so fittingly closes her programme‚ not even Bach’s most ebullient virtuosity can induce her to rush; everything emerges with a clarity that never excludes expressive beauty. Commenting that it is impossible to know the precise chronology of the Toccatas‚ Hewitt plays what she calls ‘an arbitrary sequence’‚ modestly aiming for a ‘satisfactory recital’. As a necessary corollary‚ her performances could hardly be more stylish or impeccable‚ more vital or refined; and‚ as a crowning touch‚ Hyperion’s sound is superb.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: **** / SOUND: ****
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/wj9x
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/May03/Bach_Tocattas_hewitt.htm
http://www.classical.net/~music/recs/reviews/h/hyp67310a.php
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NonVocal/Klavier-Toccatas-Hewitt[Bright].htm
http://www.amazon.com/Bach-The-Toccatas-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B000069CVA

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Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from Italy and France. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach

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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 Bach interpretations, especially 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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