SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Bach, Goldberg Variations BWV 988: Angela Hewitt (piano), Royal Festival Hall, 29.4.2009 (GD)


For various reasons I was unable to complete this review for at least three days and in an odd way this proved to be beneficial. I am sure that if I had written the review directly after the performance, still under its 'spell', I would have written something very different from the present version. With three days to digest and consider the performance the spell wore off – but not completely. I suppose what I really mean to say is that in itself this was mesmerising, indeed great, Bach playing; but I am not sure that on repeated hearings I would retain the same impression. Hewitt has just recorded this protean work and if the recording is anything like this performance I would want to own it, but only for occasional listening. What do I mean here? From the opening 'Aria' Hewitt's phrasing and realisation of a wide range of harmonic nuance were immediately compelling, but her abundant tempo variation, although captivating, somewhat detracted from the simple charm of the piece as heard in actual performances and recordings by soloists as wide ranging as Kempf, Tureck, Nikolaeva, Koopman, and Blandine Verlet. And overall Hewitt was more successful in the sustained, reflective variations like the E minor quasi fughetta No 6, and the wonderfully poignant chromatisism of the G minor No 25. Here she found an almost meditative sense of reflective anguish. Although Hewitt found new insight in virtually every variation, in the more bravura variations, as in the 'tempo di giga' of No 7 her rhythmic articulation didn't always have the clarity and radiance the young Glenn Gould used to bring to this unique music. But these criticisms, although essential, seem slightly churlish taken in the context of the whole performance. Despite the occasional mannerisms already mentioned Hewitt's performance obtains greatness in the very fact that she fully realised the sheer diversity and Panglossian integrity of Bach's genius. And this genius consists in the fact that Bach never just composed a standard baroque canon or fughetta. The Goldberg canons, trios and dance 'alla breve' movements are all compellingly interrelated and totally unique in their sudden inversions and strange chromatic modulations; unlike anything else written in the baroque era. As Tovey remarked they can be compared with the oblique and elliptical figurations and inversions we find in the poetry of Virgil and Milton.

This range and diversity in Hewitt's interpretation took on the semblance of a performance evolving; in process. She observed every repeat, the whole running just over eighty minutes! But here the repeats were never just repeats in the sense of a mere copy. In every repeat Hewitt found new inflections and nuances making one think of the same theme from a contrasted and illuminating perspective. Hewitt made a fascinating link between the concluding variations Variations 28,29 and the 'quodlibet' (literally 'as you please') all played without a break before the da capo reprise of the opening aria. Hewitt delivered the 'quodlibet', with its earthy folk song inflections and animated rustic feel, with tremendous zeal and almost lumpen panache, fully releasing the note of humour in an otherwise intensely serious and reflective work.

Hewitt plays the enormous complexities of this work and the two books of the 'Well Tempered Cavalier' entirely from memory; a feat in itself! I look forward to hearing her just released recording of the Goldberg Variations and her re-recording of the complete 'Well-Tempered Clavier on Hyperion. I also look forward to hearing her play this music in the more intimate acoustic of say the Wigmore Hall. Although I had central front stall seats I felt that the rather opaque acoustic of the Festival Hall didn't always allow the full register (particularly the mid to upper register) of Hewitt's, and Bach's, keyboard range and complexity. But overall,  a most distinctive Goldberg and one I shall not easily forget.

Geoff Diggines


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