Dear Angela,
Mission accomplished!
Your marvellous performance this week as part of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra's gift to Montreal of Messiaen's "Turangalila" was a joy to hear. It took a few minutes for my ears to acclimatize themselves to this rarely heard language, but when they did, wow! Messiaen's enormous thirst for new sounds saying new things thrust aside any reservations I might have had, and what a world he and all the musicians invited us into. Lush and robust and throbbing with a sense of the sheer joy of the interconnectness (is that a word?) of all creation -- what a beautiful world you all presented!
There was a moment in the piano part where you were challenged to play an impossibly long two handed trill, delicately throughout, and I watched and listened, dreading any loss in synchronization or momentum yet believing at least one of these to be inevitable -- such was the tremendous length of that double trill -- but no, out you came at the other end, speed and delicacy intact as the trill simply wafted easily up and into the ether. And your arms had not fallen off! For that beautiful trill alone, I thank you!
Please do alert us to when the concert will be broadcast. I, for one, will be listening.
Thank you again, and sincere best wishes,
Margaret Hofmann
Dear Ms Hewitt, I just wanted to express my appreciation for your performances of two Brahms intermezzi at the Proms. I was really moved by the second of these expressive pieces and was surprised by my reaction of being almost moved to tears (this is completely unrelated to my amateur attempts to play these pieces of course). Thank you for providing some real musical enjoyment.
Dear Miss Hewitt, I just wanted to mention how much I have enjoyed listening to your performance of the Schumann Introduction and Concert Allegro - again and again, actually, thanks to i player ! This is a work I discovered purely by chance about a year ago and just fell head over heels in love with that melody. can't get it out of my head ! Thanks again for a marvellous experience. Kind regards, Peter Tilley.
Hello Angela, although I love your whole Bach recordings there is a special one for me on your brilliant "arrangements"-Album - "Alle Menschen müssen sterben" - a title which you arranged by yourself. Whenever I hear it I'm deeply touched. Hope you will do more Bach arrangements and transcriptions in the future. All the best - Bernd
Firstly, let me say how very much I admire your work. The way you utterly inhabit Bach's sound world is, well, simply breathtaking. I live in Sydney and am soooo looking forward to your visit next year. Mozart's D minor and the Goldberg Variations? Ah! I'm counting the days!! Thank you thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for returning to Australia - you are to be the highlight of my concert-going year in 2012. Travel safely! Maurice Giacche
Hello Angela! I just wanted to thank you very much for your great performances on August 6th and, especially, today, August 7th. Your performance of the Goldberg Variations was fantastic. Although I am a spectator with no links to the concert production, I want to apologize for the troubles you had finding a piano for practising, and I hope you forgive us for those annoyances and come back soon to Brazil for more great performances. Muito obrigado!
Dear Angela,
My goodness! After reading of your trials and tribulations in trying to find a practice piano and privacy for working on it in Sao Paulo (I loved your image of playing for the bar customers in the hotel!), I am doubly looking forward to hearing your performance of Messiaen's Turangalila here in Montreal next month. It would seem you are having to climb mountains to conquer it. Here is a huge wish that you may succeed, and with far fewer obstacles in the coming weeks.
All the best! With the effort you are putting into the work, it deserves to result in a tour de force.
-- Margaret Hofmann
A belated Happy Birthday, Ms Angela!
Wish that all your dreams come true.
I've been to your recitals in Seattle & Berkely and am listening to your wonderful Handel CD while studying. Do look forward to your Debussy disc!
Best,
Vivian
Dear Angela,
Purely by coincedence i visited your website and your Wikipedia entry today, and noticed it is your birthday.
So, Happy Birthday from this admirer!
You probably won't remember me, but i visited the wonderful concert you gave last March in Holland with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and you signed my Bach-CD-Box afterwards. Thanks again for that, and hope to see and hear you again soon somewhere nearby!
Edwin (not Fischer) van Putten.
PS: i used my father's e-mail address, so 1923 is not my year, that's 1953.
Listening over and over to the CD of Jean-Phillippe Rameau's Keyboard Suites, first heard on Sunday Baroque on National Public Radio. The most beautiful piano music I have ever heard, played as if it were recorded for the ages.
