Angela Hewitt

Event details

Bach   Selection from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1
Mendelssohn   Prelude and Fugue in E minor, op. 35, no. 1
Shostakovich   Prelude and Fugue no. 18 in F minor
Barber   Fugue from Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, op. 26
Bach   Partita no. 6 in E minor, BWV 830

One of the world’s greatest living pianists, Angela Hewitt’s interpretations of Bach have established her as one of the composer’s foremost interpreters of our time. Her award-winning cycle for Hyperion Records of all of Bach’s major keyboard works has been hailed by The Sunday Times as ‘one of the record glories of our age’.

A selection of Preludes and Fugues from Book One of The Well-Tempered Clavier – including Bach’s timeless Prelude in C major, BWV 846 – is paired with the first of Mendelssohn’s Six Preludes and Fugues. A firm favourite of pianists and audiences alike, the influence of The Well-Tempered Clavier on the set can be easily identified. Shostakovich was also inspired by Bach to compose his cycle of Preludes and Fugues after hearing a performance of The Well-Tempered given by Tatyana Nikolayeva to mark the bicentenary of Bach’s death in 1950.

The virtuosic finale of Barber’s Piano Sonata was written at the request of his friend and renowned pianist Vladimir Horowitz who, on hearing the work’s first three movements, suggested it should have ‘a very flashy last movement, but with content’! Bach’s Sixth Partita is a monumental and poignant work – conveying his profound faith and extraordinary intelligence, the suite is, without doubt, one of Bach’s greatest works for the keyboard.

'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' (BBC Music Magazine)

'Hewitt remains today’s finest exponent of Bach’s keyboard music' (Gramophone Magazine)