So much ground covered in just a few days—not only musically but geographically as well. It is not an easy thing to get together a programme of four Bach Concertos in a short time. They take such minute preparation. But of course the orchestra of the Bach Akademie Stuttgart is familiar with that repertoire, and it was a great pleasure to finish our project of the complete concertos together. For the first time I used wooden flutes for the Concerto in F major (which is Bach’s own re-arrangement of Brandenburg 4) and I loved the sound they made. The soloists were the charming Tatjana Ruhland and Christina Singer from the SWR Orchestra in Stuttgart. Florence looked beautiful under the sunshine, but also at night from the window of my hotel room (see photo—an amazing view from a bathroom!). It was quite a long trip by bus to Savona (on the Ligurian coast, up towards France), but a shorter one inland to Vercelli. In 1978 I won First Prize in the Viotti Competition in that city and I had not been back since then. I walked around looking for something familiar, but I think I must have spent all my time practising because I didn’t recognize a thing. I was only a kid…! However, Vercelli hasn’t forgotten me, and indeed surprised me by awarding me their coveted “Viotti d’oro” medal in a presentation at the end of the concert. Former winners have included Michelangeli, Muti, Schwarzkopf, Joan Sutherland, Menuhin…so I am in good company! I was very touched by their gesture, and thanked them with a short speech in Italian. The evening ended with all the musicians drinking a glass of wine in the hotel and eating some ham and cheese we had bought ourselves. Then the goodbyes. It is always very sad…with music you become very close to people so quickly and yet you are only thrown together for a few days at a time, not to see each other again for many months or years. This morning I am typing this on a train to Milan where in an hour I rehearse the Trout Quintet with the Quartet from La Scala (concert next week). It is snowing all over Italy today and everything is white. I am staying with friends in Varese to catch up on my sleep, practise all I can, and to eat well (my Italian “mother” is a fabulous cook!). This past week meals, except for dinner in Florence, were very scarce.

My schedule for March is crazy. Constant travelling and a whole ton of repertoire. But I always like a challenge! My naturopath/kinesiologist has told me to make sure I keep taking my adrenal support herbal pills (I gave up caffeine 12 years ago and don’t miss it at all—it only unnecessarily exhausts the adrenal glands!). A huge amount of adrenaline still comes with every performance—no matter how many times you’ve played a piece. I only have to walk in a concert hall stage door with my gown in hand to feel it starting. Today was no exception. I performed one of my greatest “loves”, the Schumann Piano Concerto, live on BBC Radio 3 with the BBC Scottish Symphony under conductor Andrew Manze. I wrote before how difficult that piece is, and we didn’t have a huge amount of rehearsal time, but it came off brilliantly and the feeling of exhilaration we all felt at the end has stayed with me, even though I left the concert hall at intermission to go immediately to the airport. Two flights and a car ride later, I have arrived at 1 a.m. at a hotel in the suburbs of Milan. The security guard at Glasgow Civic Halls, seeing me with all my luggage, asked if I were moving house. One suitcase has nothing but scores. I am going to need a lot of them tomorrow when I rehearse and perform four Bach Concertos with the Bach Academy Stuttgart. We have a private concert in an Abbey near Milan before embarking on a mini-tour of Italy. This will complete the project we began last October of the complete concertos of Bach (9 of them). I’m sure it will be fun. I’m only hoping that I can find time along the way to practise Chopin’s 1st Concerto, the Trout Quintet, the Brahms-Schumann Variations, and so much else. Practising on the road as a pianist is difficult to say the least. No wonder Liszt travelled with his silent piano!

My online shop is now open! Click on the link to the left to get there!

Another four concerts in five days with two different concertos. I always enjoy being out in Oregon where I have played quite often over the years. And amazingly I hit a good patch for weather, with lots of sunshine and not the usual rain. In Portland I was staying with a friend who has a magnificent view of snow-covered Mount Hood from the house (see photo). I performed Mozart’s Concerto in A, K.488 three times with the Oregon Symphony under their resident conductor, Gregory Vajda—twice in Portland and last night in Salem. We all enjoyed playing that beautiful work. The only bad thing about being out here is having to get up at 3:30 in the morning to leave for the airport and the flights back east. Before that I was in Eugene where a large audience listened to Beethoven’s 4th Concerto. Their new conductor, Danail Rachev, did an excellent job with the difficult orchestral part. I had to leave Eugene after the concert and drive with my friend back to Portland. Unfortunately we got stopped for speeding at 12:30 a.m. When the police officer asked why my friend was driving fast (it wasn’t fast by European standards, but anyway…!), she said she had Angela Hewitt in the car and she had an 8:45 a.m. rehearsal with the Oregon Symphony in Portland. He wasn’t impressed.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I will be interviewed on CBC Radio One’s programme “Q” and will play from their studio. It begins at 10 a.m. For more details, go to: http://www.cbc.ca/q/

It was an emotional night for sure. Although Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto was not packed to the rafters as it was almost 25 years ago when I won the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition (after all it was the opening of the Winter Olympics here in Canada last night….), the still numerous audience and the warm appreciation they showed meant a lot to me. It has been many years since I’ve played a solo recital on that stage, and I found myself extremely happy with the sounds I was able to produce from the terrific Fazioli concert grand that graced the platform (brought in courtesy of Merriam Music). Two nights before, in another wonderful hall (Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan), and in front of an equally responsive crowd, I had played the same programme on an American Steinway which was great for sheer brute force and certainly not without other attributes but which still, in my opinion, does not compare with the wide palette of sounds one can get from its Italian colleague. At both concerts I found a greater inspiration in the huge 5-movement Sonata in F minor by Brahms than ever before. The final section of the second movement last night had me literally in tears. People often think that the artists themselves should not be visibly moved by what they do, and indeed that is the impression that many performers give. I am not one of them. That wonderful melody that begins the Andante molto, so full of tenderness and nobility and Brahmsian warmth, and which I was able to produce on that piano in such hushed tones (and to hear the audience stop breathing)…and with fleeting thoughts of all the people dear to me who are no longer with us who would have loved to have been there…those are the moments that make the crazy life of a travelling musician worthwhile. As my first encore, I chose a piece I had not played in public for many years but which is on my Bach Arrangements CD—Wilhelm Kempff’s arrangement of “Wachet auf”, wanting to end the evening on a joyous note. But they kept clapping, so I added my “signature tune” of "Sheep May Safely Graze", another Bach transcription. The CD line-up was one of the longest ever, and I still had a party to go to…! The staff of the hall, I think, wanted to go home, but I stayed and signed every single one. I am there to communicate with my audience, and that is all part of it for me. Thank you to all those who came to make the evening so special! (The photo is of me and our great family friend, Doris Bannon from Guelph, who will soon celebrate her 93rd birthday. I had several of the "over 90 club" of my late mother's friends from her Victoria College days there last night, as well as many young people which is always good to see.)

The tour with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra ended last night in New York’s Carnegie Hall. At one point two days ago, I couldn’t remember where we had started our day (it was in fact Atlanta—an early morning departure from there; flight to Newark; bus to Pennsylvania with a lunch-stop on the way; concert there; ride back to New York City and checking into the hotel at 11 p.m.). It was all a fabulous experience, and to finish it with my debut in the “big” Carnegie Hall (having played three times now in Zankel Hall underneath it) was thrilling beyond words. It took me (and concert promoters…) 25 years from when I won my big prize in Toronto to reach that stage. It was worth the wait. Not only to perform there with all those years of experience behind me and to feel so secure when I walked out to perform my Bach Concerto, but to still have such an important “first” at this point in my career. There is still so much to do and look forward to! The hall was full which was wonderful to see. New York City was miraculously spared the big snowstorm which paralyzed so much of the east coast yesterday. The concert also went out live on WNYC, and it was great to play a Fazioli in that beautiful hall. I sat out for the second half of the concert, joining a very large group of friends who had come from my hometown in Canada, from California, Israel, and elsewhere. Thank you Orpheus for giving me that marvellous opportunity which I will always remember!

My upcoming recital in Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto (February 12th) is the 25th anniversary celebration of my win in the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition. I remember it as though it were yesterday. For the occasion, I have written a very short memoir of that night when the prize was announced. To read it please go to:

http://soundboard.roythomson.com/index.php/2010/02/03/angela-hewitt-in-her-own-words/

If you are in the Toronto area and don't yet have your tickets, then get them now and join us for this very special occasion!

Free days are sometimes the busiest. On a concert day it's easy to refuse lunches, dinners, meetings, sometimes interviews although not always. But on a "free" day you pile everything else in. So it was in New York the past two days.Hair appointment; lunch with agent; hours of practise; endless mails to answer. Then on Tuesday night, I was invited to perform with the wind players of Orpheus at a sponsor's evening in a fantastic loft in Soho. We played the Mozart Piano and Wind Quintet--and indeed played it on only one short rehearsal beforehand. We had no troubles at all as we knew the piece so well. What a joy, and especially to play it with musicians of that calibre! As an encore I did a Chopin Nocturne. And who was sitting in the first row? Sir Peter Maxwell Davies! He will be attending our concerts tomorrow in Pennsylvania and Saturday night at Carnegie Hall to hear his new piece. He forgave me immediately for not playing it myself which was a relief. But I really must ask him to write me something else as we had such fun talking there, and then afterwards over dinner with his partner Colin Parkinson (to his left in the photo of us all). And then yesterday here in Atlanta I gave another private evening for the Friends of Spivey Hall, a group of whom are coming to my festival in Italy this summer! I'm so thrilled they are taking the initiave and also bringing along the artistic director of the hall, Sam Dixon. But now I must get ready for the concert tonight here at Emory University.

About 250 people rather than 1000 braved the few inches of snow (laughable to a Canadian) and came to hear us perform in Durham NC last night. I felt sorry for the promoter who had expected a full house, but what can one do? All we could do was to play our best. The bad news came at intermission: our flight to Newark for the next morning was cancelled. The only alternative was to leave the hotel at 4 a.m. and take the bus to Greensboro (going southbound to go north...), then a flight to Charlotte, then another flight to Newark, then another bus to Purchase. I woke up at 2:15 a.m. and that was it. Instead of trying to sleep another half hour I washed my hair so as not to look a total fright. The orchestra was very stoic about it all--a few groans but nothing much more (I'm told that's because there were no wind players with us, other than the lovely flautist, Liz Mann, seen with me at the end of it all in the photo). Musicians are a tough breed. We did have a laugh at Greensboro airport when the agent at the gate announced priority boarding "for those with small children and large instruments" (2 of the 3 cellists are man and wife and they had their 5-year-old son with them)! I've learned to nap a bit on planes which helped. Still, we only got to the hall an hour and a half before the concert, just in time to eat the food they had generously prepared for us and get dressed. The audience of course wouldn't have had a clue about all of that. Just as well. And again we played with all our energy. What is it about music that brings out this tremendous force when all you feel like is collapsing?

Here we are on the highway between the states of Virginia and North Carolina, travelling all together (soloists, orchestra, management) in a coach in a snowstorm (the photo was just taken at a rest stop--I'm with the orchestra's manager, Graham Parker). We had to leave Richmond much earlier than planned because we were afraid that if we waited it would get worse. The driver is excellent at least, and we are heavily laden down with cellos and baggage and so have good traction. Whether or not anyone will turn up for the concert tonight is another matter! We are happy having wi-fi internet on the bus, and lots of cookies (even gluten-free) and snacks that they bought for us before leaving! Last night they certainly turned out in Richmond and gave us a very warm welcome. I had forgotten that I had played there in recital at least 5 years ago, but remembered as soon as we drove up to the hall. It's a great pleasure to work with Orpheus--the most democratic of chamber orchestras. Each player has their say. They take turns listening in the hall during rehearsals. I mustn't conduct with my hands--oh no! Christopher Taylor was the brave pianist who took on the piece by Maxwell Davies which they premiered. The composer himself hasn't turned up yet, and they did an amazing job playing it without conductor. The part that I gave up on they evidently played at half speed (that's what I thought would happen). Even then it sounded extremely fast. But bravo to all! I was happy playing my Bach which is my world.