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)
GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE
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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)
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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)
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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)
GRAMOPHONE ‘EDITOR’S CHOICE’
GRAMOPHONE CRITICS’ CHOICE
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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)
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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)
GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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