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6/21/2025, 3:23:37 PM
Angela Hewitt's Bach Art of Fugue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVwljcrWhw8&list=OLAK5uy_ldbQuu2l6uueuBCYNLSrbLHoYNmjYUjcI&index=8
Been forever since I heard this recording. It was actually the first Art of Fugue I ever listened to but at the time I didn't really get it or Bach, so I'm curious how I feel today. If it ends up not good, I'll switch to Koroliov's inimitable recording, but we'll see.
>Basically, what we have here is a reboot of Bach’s BWV 1080 which relegates pretty much every other recording on piano to ‘also-ran’ status. ---- Dominy Clements
>‘Hewitt’s eloquent exposition of each fugue’s “formula”, the result of a lifetime’s immersion in Bach’s music, could hardly be bettered’ (Financial Times)
>‘… playing of unusual distinction…This Art of Fugue is marvellous. The variety and beauty of tone alone make compelling listening, bringing contrasts, clarity and warmth to Bach’s intellectual marvels… radiant majesty and humanity’ (Geoff Brown, The Times)
High praise. And to cap it off with a quote from Hewitt herself, from the Clements review
>Angela Hewitt’s extensive booklet notes for this release open with her prevarication with regard to learning and performing Bach’s The Art of Fugue. “What I had heard of it never seemed to excite me very much. Neither could I believe that Bach in his final years had at last managed to write something boring.”
which continues in the same opening paragraph,
>All of these recordings have fine qualities and there are of course many more versions to explore, but Angela Hewitt’s now very much represents the top of the evolutionary tree. When it comes to Beethoven’s late piano sonatas I had the feeling that Igor Levit was giving us the ultimate ‘Software Update’ in opening the window on these works in terms of interpretative clarity. The Art of Fugue reaches comparable heights with Angela Hewitt, rendering Bach’s late enigma into something richly satisfying, deeply enjoyable, and movingly poetic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVwljcrWhw8&list=OLAK5uy_ldbQuu2l6uueuBCYNLSrbLHoYNmjYUjcI&index=8
Been forever since I heard this recording. It was actually the first Art of Fugue I ever listened to but at the time I didn't really get it or Bach, so I'm curious how I feel today. If it ends up not good, I'll switch to Koroliov's inimitable recording, but we'll see.
>Basically, what we have here is a reboot of Bach’s BWV 1080 which relegates pretty much every other recording on piano to ‘also-ran’ status. ---- Dominy Clements
>‘Hewitt’s eloquent exposition of each fugue’s “formula”, the result of a lifetime’s immersion in Bach’s music, could hardly be bettered’ (Financial Times)
>‘… playing of unusual distinction…This Art of Fugue is marvellous. The variety and beauty of tone alone make compelling listening, bringing contrasts, clarity and warmth to Bach’s intellectual marvels… radiant majesty and humanity’ (Geoff Brown, The Times)
High praise. And to cap it off with a quote from Hewitt herself, from the Clements review
>Angela Hewitt’s extensive booklet notes for this release open with her prevarication with regard to learning and performing Bach’s The Art of Fugue. “What I had heard of it never seemed to excite me very much. Neither could I believe that Bach in his final years had at last managed to write something boring.”
which continues in the same opening paragraph,
>All of these recordings have fine qualities and there are of course many more versions to explore, but Angela Hewitt’s now very much represents the top of the evolutionary tree. When it comes to Beethoven’s late piano sonatas I had the feeling that Igor Levit was giving us the ultimate ‘Software Update’ in opening the window on these works in terms of interpretative clarity. The Art of Fugue reaches comparable heights with Angela Hewitt, rendering Bach’s late enigma into something richly satisfying, deeply enjoyable, and movingly poetic.
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