Angela Hewitt : Bach Performance on the Piano, Excerpt 3

From Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt's 2008 DVD released on the British Hyperion label, 'Bach Performance on the Piano'.

I hope to periodically post excerpts from this instructive and enlightening 2-disc DVD set, in which Ms Hewitt (my favourite Bach interpreter today) ...

'... shares the inspiration and experience behind her award-winning playing in an illustrated lecture that explores the technical and practical steps essential for performing Bach on the piano. '

This first extracted bit is from the third chapter, 'Interpretation', beginning with a full performance of the Two-Part Invention No. 6, then skips to 3.3, 'Rhythmic Alterations'. Her opinions and tips are at the master class level, and are insightful and interesting, and can be inspiring and helpful to all lovers, listeners and players of Bach on the keyboard.

NOTE: I do not intend to post the entire DVD contents here; only excerpts to show viewers what invaluable tips and advice Ms Hewitt offers in this DVD set to all lovers of Bach's exquisite keyboard music.

To learn more, and to purchase a copy, visit:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012Y1HJQ/ref=cm_rdp_product


From Angela Hewitt's own official website/blog:

http://www.angelahewitt.com/record.php?record_id=34

(The poster is in no way connected to Ms Hewitt or Hyperion, but is just a huge fan of the performer and the composer, and wishes to promote her DVD for interested players, teachers and listeners.

The poster is also quite mediocre in her pianistic skills, but finds enlightening and inspiring all that Ms Hewitt has to share here, and furthers her enjoyment of Bach on the keyboard !)

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[oomphlau]

We're confronted here with a deep disagreement about style. Everything she plays here is wrong and un-Baroque. She' making it sound like Chopin. Her "double dots" which she thinks gives it more character, does the opposite—it trivializes it. She's using scholarship as an excuse for rubato, the bane of the Baroque style. She's taking Bach and trying to insert mannerisms which appeal to the modern ear which has been corrupted by a century of Romantic style, and what Gould instinctively eschewed.

[mariandelochs]

@oomphlau

Yes, and that's all it is - a disagreement in style. You are certainly entitled to your own opinion, but I seriously doubt that J. S. himself would've been so closed-minded as to follow your strict pronouncements about any piece of his.

[version191]

@mariandelochs Why not be specific about why you think her style works instead of making the incredibly bogus move of trying to assume what Bach would have approved of. Many great composers were intolerable pendants about their music, you have no idea what he would have wanted.

[mariandelochs]

@version191

None of us would. 'Incredibly bogus'? - bah, that was my opinion, bogus to you or not. I'm no musicologist or pedant - all I know is that Hewitt brings life, sparkle, a propulsive rhythm and momentum to Bach.

[oomphlau]

@mariandelochs As I have said before, Hewitt is a fine pianist, and if Glenn Gould had never existed I would by grateful for her Bach. But Gould did exist, and he showed us how to play Bach. I believe the things in Hewitt's playing I don't like are more a function of her temperament more than a breach of style. If you listen closely you'll hear her playing some passages with a little "lilt," which trivializes the music — because everything Bach wrote is spiritual. He couldn't help himself.

[mariandelochs]

@oomphlau

Sorry to disagree. Don't know how that supposed little 'lilt' trivialises the music. There will continue to be a difference of opinion between you and me and others of like mind about Hewitt's Bach, so I think I'll just leave it at that. You are very welcome to not like Hewitt's Bach, but that is only *your* opinion, as it is her opinion of how she prefers to interpret Bach. Glenn Gould revolutionised the interpretation of Bach and I count him as one of my Bach interpretive greats,

[mariandelochs]

@oomphlau

continued...but, are we to remain stuck with Gould as the be-all and end-all of all things keyboard Bach? I think not, and his is also his own interpretation of how Bach should sound like. I understand your having a 'gold' (or 'Gould'?) standard, but discounting everyone else's opinion who isn't Gould gets us nowhere, and is unproductive.

[la200o]

This is just superb in all respects!

[jazzwatcher]

Great pianist! Great speaker, synaptically super in her thoughts and precision.

A true inspiration to all who believe in music and Bach would adore her as most of the planet who truly studies music . She is a contrapuntal genius for all who study Baroque music!



[margellinanapoli]

Watching how musician are cooking their stuff is a most boring experience. in Art only the result matters...i understand the Fazioli group needs advertising but pls, leave Bach away from that business. On a stylistical aspect, Mrs Hewitt is a pure copy of Gould...and i definitely do not think that Gould was right in his interpretative choices. For that very reason : Bach has nothing to do with Science, as Gould and his Time thought...he has to do with Faith.

[mikegallegos7]

Thank you very, very much. The more I play Bach, the more I extend my effort to apply appropriate character - but problem is, lol, I sometimes get fickle and alter the character I worked hard to achieve and settle on an unexpected simplicty, something not so hard to attain: as I study Bach, I often find the simpler application prevails but remains unknown until the effort and ability to play several character types are available. Bach is a fascinating study. Thanks again. Have a nice day.

[flutetalker]

According to his biographers Gould was far from spiritual, but rather nervous, neurotic and hypochondriacal. I love his playing, his percussive approach, his singing along. I adore Hewitt's playing of Bach, her dedication to the highest standards of interpretation and technical mastery, her willingness to share her knowledge, her love of the music.

[ClassicalOJazz]

Bach is not to be played by a computer.

Gould was Good, not God.

Angela Hewitt is an excellent Bach performer (along with Helene Grimaud and Murray Perhaia).

But if you insist on a "Gould-rule-based" performance, notice that:

1) "two hundred years ago, the performer had much more leeway. "

2) "the eighteenth century made it not only customary but Mandatory for a performer to add his own ornaments and cadenzas"

(form the book Great Pianists by Harold Schonberg)

[oomphlau]

Marian, I have made general statements about Gould and Hewitt, pointing out for one thing the apparent difference in their temperaments and that I get from Gould the spiritual aspect of Bach not evident in Hewitt. Don't dwell on the little things, such as the "lilt," when you read what I'm saying, but rather consider the broader observations such as Hewitt's general lack of real empathy with the Baroque style. And again, I repeat, she is a very fine pianist, but better suited to Chopin.