Angela Hewitt’s notes
state that this is the last of her CDs
of solo Bach keyboard works. It has
been a significant series, a laudable
one, and there’s no lessening in perception
in this volume. It takes a disparate
collection of works written over the
course of Bach’s career. There are no
obvious ties that bind them, though
equally the programming as such is perfectly
explicable. They show, as she says,
great variety stylistically – and that’s
one of the greatest of the pleasures
to be gathered from this disc.
She certainly evokes
the organ sonorities of the Fantasia
and Fugue in A minor with commensurate
clarity and precision in the Fugue;
textures here are luminous, voicings
apt, and there is no sense either of
diminution of feeling or of unscaled
extravagance. Similarly with the Aria
Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana'
which appears in Andreas Bach’s Book
and was probably written in 1709. Like
the Goldberg Variations the theme returns
at the end. Hewitt disregards the Largo
indication for the first variation taking
it at a more animated tempo, which feels
right, and her left hand pointing in
the third variation is captivating.
Similarly the sense of speed, accuracy
and control is nowhere more apparent
than in variation eight and her apposite
ornamentation shows itself in the return
of the theme in the last, tenth variation.
BWV963 is the only
original keyboard sonata by Bach – the
others are transcriptions or used material
by Reinken. Here she vests the short
second movement with great amplitude
and prettily brings out the quixotic
chicken and cuckoo imitations in the
finale marked, as if one couldn’t guess,
Theme all’imitatio Gallina Cuccu.
Entertaining though it is to hear
this rather unbalanced and eccentric
sonata the Partie in A major has rather
more depth. It was for long thought
to be by Telemann and its highlight,
as Hewitt suggests, is the second movement
Air for trompettes – unique for Bach
and tremendous fun to listen to as well,
one imagines, to play. The Suite in
F minor is an explicitly French influenced
compound whose middle movement, a Sarabande
en Rondeau, has a gentle gravity; it
actually sounds rather reserved here,
though her articulation is first class.
Elsewhere we can speculate
on the (doubtful) Adagio in C minor;
it’s derived from the opening movement
of Bach’s violin sonata in C major BWV
968 but the arrangement may well be
by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Her Wer
nur den lieben Gott lässt walten
is effectively realised and one can
admire the control of her Fugal playing
in the Fantasia and Fugue in A minor
BWV944 which by virtue of good programming
and symmetry matches the opening piece
in the same key, BWV904.
Hewitt’s notes are
written in a down to earth and attractive
way and she has been afforded the same
warm and yet detailed acoustic as was
the case in previous volumes.
Jonathan Woolf