Music at Paxton: Angela Hewitt
Paxton House - 31/07/22
Angela Hewitt regularly sells out her solo performances and Paxton’s final concert is no exception, with the few returns snapped up at lunchtime. In her early sixties, Hewitt, who has dual Canadian and British nationality, specialises in keyboard recitals, all on piano, of composers now often seen as the preserve of early music instrumentalists. She’s recorded all Bach’s keyboard music and is part-way through Mozart’s. She plays works by both this afternoon, beginning with Mozart’s Piano Sonata in F K332. This is a charming work – Mozart thought it was a piece which everyone would like. The light graceful Allegro and the cantabile Adagio are movements which the proficient student might play, but the final movement requires real technical brilliance with its breath-taking Presto runs. It has touches of humour and a softer lyrical centre. After a number of explosive false endings, it concludes surprisingly on a quiet note.
Hewitt’s introductions are witty, wearing her erudition lightly and include humorous asides about the composers as well as her own life as a performer. She’s helpful in clarifying the structure of the Bach, the formality of the Overture, the tempos of the dances, and the Sarabande as the “emotional centre”. While playing, she smiles often, as if greeting an old friend when she begins a new theme, or with satisfaction in solving the knotty problem of an intricate passage. From my second-row seat I can see how the weight alters in her hands and arms, but also note how her whole body is involved. She sits upright for the Overture with its stiff elaborate ornaments, while she sways and lifts her arms higher in the bouncier dances. The Sarabande is slow, profound and stark, Hewitt drawing us in with her austere performance. The piece was written for the harpsicord and the last movement, ‘Echo’, is intended to demonstrate the loud and soft dynamics of its two keyboards. Hewitt has fun replicating these sounds on the piano, moving from loud to soft with rapid changes from forte to pianissimo phrases.
Brahms’ last piano Sonata, No3 in F Minor Opus 5 was written when he was 20. It’s a youthfully ambitious, extravagant piece which wears its heart on its sleeve. Long a favourite of Hewitt’s – she played it at her Wigmore Hall debut in 1985 – it recently ended her programme in Italy, the audience outdoors with a storm brewing. She concluded the finale with its galloping accelerando just before the skies opened. “They thought I was speeding up to get finished before the rain.”
The first two movements are symphonic in their scale and complexity. The Allegro Maestoso begins in fury, with the pianist covering the whole keyboard. Eventually a lighter Piu animato takes over and the movement ends triumphantly. Around the time of composition, Brahms began his association with the Schumann family. Clara regularly played the Andante second movement in concerts, even when Robert was in an asylum after his suicide attempt. Brahms helped out at home “by seeing to the diapers.” This movement too is long, requiring playing of great delicacy but also impassioned climaxes. The shorter Scherzo includes an anthem-like Trio. (‘“Why are you playing Three Blind Mice?” my dad would ask.’) The unusual Intermezzo, which re-purposes music from the slow movement, leads directly into the Finale which continues to explore and develop themes from the whole work. Eventually that Trio anthem takes over and its elaboration canters with ever increasing force towards the shattering conclusion.
Hewitt rests her head briefly on the top of the piano and recovers to accept the tumultuous applause. We’ve been privileged to hear an artist of astonishing brilliance who never lets us forget her humanity. Her encore is a transcription of Bach’s ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’, moving in its warmth.
