Angela Hewitt Plays Bach

Event details

Angela Hewitt  piano

JS Bach
Toccata in D, BWV 912
French Suite no. 5 in G, BWV 816
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903
Partita no. 5 in G, BWV 829
Italian Concerto in F, BWV 971
Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 894

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

An all-Bach programme opens with the dramatic Toccata in D from the composer’s seven ‘manualiter’ toccatas. Bach’s Suites for harpsichord, BWV 812–817, were not given the name ‘French’ until twelve years after his death. It is often said that the composer’s six English Suites are more French in style than the French Suites and that the French Suites are, if anything, more Italian, blending various European styles from the period. One of his best-loved keyboard works, Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor was already popular during his lifetime. The highly virtuosic and chromatic piece explores the characteristics of different musical keys.

The programme’s second half begins with Bach’s bright and joyful Fifth Partita, which starts relatively simply before concluding with a notably demanding double fugue. Bach’s Italian Concerto is one of his most popular works and was inspired by Venetian composers such as Vivaldi. Bach uses the contrasting forte and piano manuals of a two-manual harpsichord to create the effect of alternating between solo and tutti sections. The final piece in the concert also begins in the concerto style before a virtuosic four-part fugue draws the programme to a close with a toccata-like cadenza.