Dear Ms Hewitt
Although I have not yet heard any of your performances live, I have listened very intently to many of your CD recordings and quite frankley I am amazed by your virtuosity at the paino keyboard.
I have listened to most of your Bach performances and latterly your Baroque offerings of Couperin. I love the way you bring out the subtleties of the Les Baricades..... on the piano, and in my opinion your arrangement is better than all the versions of this piece I've heard performed on the harpischord.
Thursday night's concert in Kingston was superb! I wrote to a friend earlier today... "The sound of the Yamaha concert grand and the acoustics in the church were a match for the playing which, even with the most spectacular runs and crashing chords, achieves a clarity and a quality of tone that can only be described as liquid crystal!" I was particularly taken by the syncopation, especially in the Rameau, and the way in which the music emerged out of the pure silence of the momentary rests to surprise and delight.
Thank you!
David Baril
Almonte ON
Finally the Gigue in Bach's English Suite No 6 is done right!! Thank you for playing Bach, Angela Hewitt, so superbly and expressive. Bach is my
greatest musical hero. I am a modern
jazz pianist and composer (jazz and classical) and sensitive to how Bach is treated. Your Bach playing is it!!
Dear Angela, my wife and I loved your terrific Wigmore Hall recital last night. Your Beethoven had such power and drama as well as songful nobility. Your wonderful piano made Beethoven's great music ring out as I have never heard it before.
I listen to many other fine pianists at Wigmore, but they mostly make do with the House Steinway which just sounds so dull and opaque after your Fazioli. I always think that Steinways area bit like musical Ford Mondeos, everybody's got one and they all sound the same !!
Thanks so much again for such fabulous music making, here's to your next one.
All best,
Mike Hanna
I listened to your new Beethoven disc today, and I think it is excellent! I like the concept of mixing familiar and less familiar pieces, and I think all three sonatas are beautifully played. The piano sound is great, too, quite different to the usual Steinway sound. You can really hear all the voices. Congratulations - I'm looking forward to your future recordings.
Dear Ms. Hewitt,
Although I reside here, I seldom attend concerts in Tokyo. Two years ago on a friend's recommendation, I attended your debut concerts here, a city where a multitude of jet-lagged artists show various levels of performance fatigue at high prices.
Last week I attended your concert for the 5th time in 3 years and, as always in your performances, left the auditorium in awe of your musical intelligence. Not only did you reveal unheard nuances but the way you let the Fazioli sing to us the Adagio of the Pathetique as an encore revealed how much attention you pay to the sound that the instrument is capable of giving.
It gave me the impression that you liked this paricular piano so much that you would like to wrap it and take it home with you. Your technique goes beyond playing faster or louder; you really play the instrument that is in front of you and use it to color the phrases. A most rare partnership between composer, performer and instrument. Finally, a pianist who seems to really love playing the piano.
Brava!
J.
Dear Ms. Hewitt,
I read with much joy about your Gramaphone Award. It is richly deserved. Your gift to the people of Canada by taking time to visit small communities and share your music with us will long be remembered. I saw you in Dalhousie, New Brunswick a few years back and have never forgotten the concert. Because of you
and other artists who give of their time, many of us in rural areas get to see
classical music at its best. Last month the small town of Dalhousie actually
bought a new 9' Bosendorfer (not sure of spelling) piano to replace the one that was on loan from CBC. That is a testament to musicians like yourself who have made yourselves available to audiences who would not otherwise have the chance.
I look forward to seeing you again at a concer in Canada sometime!!
thanks again.
Gerald
Angel
Bach is fine.
Beethoven is not without merit.
So, so far so good.
But when can we hope to have some or better still most of Schubert? Life is too short to spend too much time on anyone else........
Keep up the brilliant work!
Bernie
Kent
UK
Dear Angela,
I was so happy to have enjoyed your concert held at Tokyo OperaCity on Oct.25,'06. All the pieces which you played for us are quite different from what I had ever heard.I mean everything was magnific. My wife who graduated from the music university herein Japan knows the essential of music university herein Japan knows the essential of the music better than me told me after the concert that she had never heard such brilliant pieces,all of which she knows of course and added that all the notes you played were so clearly inspiring the audience. We are not christian but we wish to thank your God for your talent which is, we believe, a splendid gift from HIM. I thank you very much for answering my naive question at Nagomi house.
Dearest Angela,
So happy to learn that Gramophone readers (like me) have finally voted you in enough numbers to give you Artist of the Year award (well past due, in my opinion!)!
I have yet to see and hear you play live in the USA. I live in a small town in WV, and wrote you once a few years ago, mentioning how you inspired me to take up the piano once again after decades of neglect. However, I do plan to attend your Trasimeno Festival in 2007 with kith and kin with me, I hope, all proper conditions being met next year, finance-wise.
By the way, is a Fazioli an absolute must in all your concerts now? If so, I think it would be difficult for you to play in my state's capital, since I don't know of any Fazioli available nearby. I hope this isn't the case!
Good luck in all your endeavours!
Warm regards,
Teresa