Angela Hewitt's first recording of works by Robert Schumann will come as a surprise to many, but it is repertoire that she has lived with for several decades, ever since she was a prizewinner in the International Schumann Competition in Zwickau (Schumann's birthplace) in 1977. Both works on this CD deserve to be heard more often than they are.

"A compelling Schumann player" (Classic FM Magazine)

"unreservedly superb" (The Guardian)

August 2007 sees the start of Angela Hewitt’s Bach World Tour in which she will bring her celebrated performances of The Well-Tempered Clavier to twenty-five countries on six continents. Concurrently, Hyperion is releasing this limited edition box set of Hewitt’s iconic recordings of ‘The 48’ - held by many critics to be the definitive piano version of Bach’s incomparable masterpiece.

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BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE PICK OF THE MONTH AND BEST OF THE YEAR
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JUNO AWARD, CANADA 1999

Angela Hewitt's first chamber music CD is with the brilliant young German cellist, Daniel Müller-Schott. Both artists were brought up on the music of Bach, and their collaboration in these wonderful sonatas is a joy to hear.

This is the second in a series of Beethoven CDs by Angela for Hyperion. The programme comprises three Sonatas which she has played in public for many years: the lyrical "Pastoral" Op. 28; the famous "Pathétique"; and the virtuoso C major Sonata Op. 2 No. 3--one of the highlights of early Beethoven.

Following in the footsteps of Angela Hewitt's best-selling Couperin CDs for Hyperion, here is a disc of keyboard pieces by his compatriot, Jean-Philippe Rameau, who was a master dramatist. The E minor Suite contains his well-known "Tambourin".

"Her performances have a wonderfully fluid stylishness...and they are founded upon a willingness to use the full tonal resources of a modern concert grand in a way that seems to make utterly irrelevant any question of what is historically or musicologically "correct" in playing this music." (The Guardian, January 2007)

"...a revelation" (International Record Review)

This volume commences a survey of Beethoven sonatas which will couple the well known, in this case the ‘Appassionata’, with the comparatively neglected, here the grandest of Beethoven’s early sonatas, his Op. 7. The disc is completed with a performance of Op 10/3, one of the early sonatas where Beethoven can be seen breaking the bounds of convention to create the style which would define the great works of his middle period.

"Clarity, elegance, intelligence, a belief in letting the composer speak: the winner of the Gramophone Artist of the Year award parades her qualities in the first of a new Beethoven series" (The Times, London)

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DAILY TELEGRAPH: CD OF THE WEEK

The piano music of Chabrier deserves to be better known. His Dix Pièces Pittoresques were described by Poulence as being "as important for French music as the Preludes of Debussy". Chabrier's infectious gaiety is captured on this disc which includes all of his major piano works.

"Angela Hewitt plays this refreshing selection with the same poetry, elegance and dancing touch that made her other French discs for Hyperion so special." (The Times, London)

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This is a re-issue in slimline double format of the two Bach Keyboard Concertos CDs that were released last year. Only a few weeks after their release, they were already in the Billboard Charts in the USA, and were named Record of the Month by Gramophone magazine. For those of you who haven't already purchased the single discs, this is the best format to have!

"A superb pair of discs" (Gramophone)

This CD, along with its companion second volume, contain all Bach’s concertos featuring a solo keyboard. The first volume includes the famous D minor Concerto, as well as the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto in D major.

'As always, she [Hewitt] really sparkles in the allegros, infusing the music with wit as well as technical bravura' (Sunday Times CD of the Week)

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This is the second CD in a set that contains all of Bach’s extant concertos for solo keyboard. Four of the concertos are true solo concertos; the one in F major is Bach's own arrangement of his Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 featuring two solo flutes as well as solo keyboard.

'charismatic, effervescent, uplifting'
(Evening Standard, London)

A choice selection of Bach Arrangements by Wilhelm Kempff, Myra Hess, Eugen d'Albert, and many others, including Angela Hewitt herself.

'A magnificent addition to both the Bach repertoire and Angela Hewitt's artistically unparallelled survey of Bach's keyboard compositions' (Fanfare, USA)

BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM (SOLO OR CHAMBER), JUNO AWARDS 2002, CANADA

An almost "live" performance of Bach's masterpiece, and the work that Angela Hewitt performs in public all over the world.

'This is Bach on the piano of the highest quality imaginable' (The Guardian)

'In my view, she has never made a better CD. Strongly recommended' (Gramophone)

One of Bach's most popular works, the Italian Concerto, is here presented with the French Overture, the Four Duets, and the two youthful Capriccios.

'This disc is one of the finest volumes in Hewitt’s continuing Bach cycle, with marvellous engineering to match. Highly recommended' (International Record Review)

'Hewitt's playing radiates joy, wit and profound understanding of the composer's keyboard style. This series is one of the record glories of our age' (The Sunday Times)

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Recorded towards the end of Angela Hewitt's Bach cycle, the English Suites are large-scale, virtuoso works demanding a complete mastery of Baroque style and technique.

Another tour de force from this wonderful player' (The Independent)

'The standard of excellence Angela Hewitt has set in previous installments in her Hyperion Bach cycle continues unabated with the English Suites' (BBC Music Magazine)

BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM (SOLO OR CHAMBER), JUNO AWARDS 2005, CANADA

This was the second release in the Bach cycle, dating from 1995. As well as the Six French Suites, which contain some of Bach's most attractive music, the double-CD includes the Eighteen Little Preludes for beginners, and the Sonata in D minor--Bach's own transcription of one of his solo violin sonatas.

'Hewitt's playing makes Bach's music live, for me, in a way that even the greatest harpsichordists do not' (The Sunday Times)

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The Partitas show how Bach took the standard keyboard suite and made it into something uniquely his own. With the release of this CD back in 1997, Angela Hewitt's career began to really take off.

'Effortlessly eclipsing all competition' (Gramophone)

'Pouvait-on imaginer Bach aussi lumineux, brillant? … Un exercice 'parfait', à écouter et à réécouter pour en savourer toute la puissance, toute l'éloquence (Répertoire, France)

'For this pair of discs only superlatives will do.' (Soundscapes, Australia)

These early works show how Bach must have wowed his contemporaries with his improvisations and virtuoso keyboard playing. A must for any serious piano student!

'Her performances could hardly be more stylish or impeccable, more vital or refined; and, as a crowning touch, Hyperion's sound is superb' (Gramophone)

'Like the music itself, the performances brim with that improvisatory spontaneity that is the hallmark of this player’s style' (The Sunday Times)

The last disc in the acclaimed series of solo keyboard works by J.S. Bach has Angela Hewitt presenting many works which are rarely played, let alone on the piano. Besides more well-known pieces such as the Fantasia and Fugue in a minor, BWV 904, and the Aria Variata, BWV 989, we have the Sonata in D major (concluding with a fugue imitating the hen and the cuckoo!), and the Partie in A major (with its jaunty Air pour les Trompettes).

"...another out and out winner from Angela Hewitt" (The Daily Telegraph, London)

'The statuesque, beautiful, and brilliantly gifted Angela Hewitt has now joined the ranks of the great interpreters of Bach's keyboard music, and
the effortless and natural readings on this and the other CDs in her cycle for Hyperion unquestionably number among the finest available. After discussion, debate - call it what you will - Angela Hewitt's recordings may be deemed unquestionably definitive'
(Fanfare, USA)

Angela Hewitt takes a well-deserved break from her mammoth Bach and Couperin surveys to present us with this enthralling set of Chopin’s complete Nocturnes and Impromptus, recorded on her own Fazioli concert grand piano.


"What we get in many of these riveting performances is deep, raw emotion, of a sometimes agonising immediacy, all the more painful for the almost impossible beauty and elegance of its expression."
(Piano Magazine, UK)

If Bach, why not also Couperin on the piano? Purists will be shocked, but Angela Hewitt makes an impressive case for it, and this disc became a bestseller!

'By turning her attention to these works, Angela Hewitt may succeed in reviving and popularising Couperin’s enchanting music as no modern-day harpsichordist has been able to do' (Gramophone)

'Of all living pianists, Hewitt makes the strongest case for hearing Bach on the piano as opposed to harpsichord. Here, she applies the same staggering technique and intellectual grasp to three suites by François Couperin ... outstanding' (The Independent)

A second disc for those who were enamoured of Angela Hewitt's initial survey of the keyboard works of the great French master, François Couperin.

'In the expert hands of Angela Hewitt, François 'Le Grand' Couperin makes as easy a transition from harpsichord to piano as has Bach. The difference is that many people may - and should - now be listening to Couperin for the first time.'
(The Guardian)

'For someone of Angela Hewitt's pulling power to invite her fans so enticingly down so unfashionable a path...is brave; and it's right' (BBC Music Magazine)

This is the third and final CD in Angela Hewitt's best-selling Couperin series. Here she presents the Thirteenth Ordre (with the colourful variations Les Folies Françoises ou Les Dominos), along with a selection of separate pieces from various suites, including The Nightingale in Love (14th Ordre).

"Hewitt's dynamic shading and careful ornamentation work together to produce the scintillating musical equivalent of light shining through crystals." (Toronto Star)

"The crispness and clarity of Hewitt's performances, especially her apparently effortlessly elegant ornamentation, bring these and all Couperin's other musical pictures instantly to life." (Daily Telegraph)

In this disc, Angela Hewitt shows her affinity for French piano music, presenting the early Préludes of Olivier Messiaen, along with several of his Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus and Île de feu 1 and 2.

Rarely, if ever, can Messiaen's piano music have been played with such refinement'
(Classic CD)

'A revelation' (The Scotsman)

The complete solo piano works of Maurice Ravel are presented here on two discs, reminding us that Angela Hewitt plays more than just Bach!

"a magnificent survey … a treasure trove!" (Gramophone)

"second to none"
(The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)

This was Angela Hewitt's first CD in her cycle of Bach discs for Hyperion, recorded in 1994. She begins where Bach would have wanted to begin: with the Two- and Three-part Inventions--works that are approached by every piano teacher and student around the world.

'Performances of exemplary clarity and craftsmanship' (CDReview)

'As close to how I would choose to hear [the music] as I have yet had the pleasure of doing' (Gramophone)

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