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16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
CARRYING THE STANDARD, 29 Jun 2004
My head is ringing with preludes and fugues by Bach at the moment. Just a week or two ago I attended a festival of keyboard counterpoint at the Royal Northern College of Music, and over the last year or so the BBC has been broadcasting a midnight series of the 48 played by Gavrilov, Demidienko and Joanna McGregor. One thing is very apparent from it all - Bach's preludes and fugues don't get many bad performances, in public at least. Angela Hewitt is in a very distinguished line of north American Bach-players on the piano. During the 50's and 60's Rosalynn Tureck kept the tradition of playing Bach on the piano alive as the purist bandwagon gathered momentum, and slightly later Hewitt's great Canadian compatriot Glenn Gould gave that tradition a spectacular new impetus, and by now matters are where they ought to be, with instruments seen and heard as the servants of music and not the reverse.
It's difficult to give the right impression of a set of performances where there is really nothing to criticise. Hewitt works within strict parameters of moderation and impeccable taste and sense of style. That is not faint praise, but very emphatic praise indeed. There is plenty of variety in her touch, and plenty of light and shade in her dynamics and tempi. What she doesn't go in for is the dramatic contrasts of loud and soft so favoured by Tureck, nor the sometimes spectacular tempi adopted by Gould. Her technique is absolutely perfect, but her touch is not one that you could identify in an instant the way you can often identify Gould's. Now and again she raises her voice to some purpose, as when she adds an extra octave in the bass (very properly) at the end of the D major fugue, and we get an impression of what she could she could do along with the best of them if she saw fit. In general, though, this is the exception. Her way with the first book of the 48 is neither unduly severe nor tending towards the romantic, as one may feel Richter does. This is a musical world of its own. It contains limitless variety in everything except the consistently magnificent standard of the pieces, but it's a world that stays within its own orbit and this player goes on no trips outside that orbit. Whatever the piece seems to ask for, Angela Hewitt seems to have it. She tells us that she detects a danger that the second prelude, in C minor, can be made to sound ugly. Nobody I've listened to lately did that, and I suspect Hewitt wouldn't even know how. She is not without individuality in her own terms either, as you will hear right away in the famous first prelude. I have always been very attracted to Gould's highly individual way of doing this, each arpeggio half-legato and half-staccato. In case it was time for a change, here is a very beautiful alternative, light and ethereal. She is particularly effective in the C sharp major prelude too, and actually tells us to some extent how she achieves her effect. Her liner-booklet is one of the best I have ever seen. It's informative, thoughtful, unpretentious, practical and down-to-earth, and all the better in that respect for being concerned with music that is anywhere but down to earth. Sometimes she lets us into her thinking as to why she adopts a certain approach - she favours a constant pulse in the big E flat prelude, for instance, and she ends the C sharp minor fugue quietly because (according to Czerny) Beethoven did it that way and it makes the best sense to her done like that in any case. This is an absolute joy of a set, in case I haven't made that clear already. There are other fine sets around (e.g. Schiff apart from others already mentioned) and it's unlikely that any listener will like one interpreter's account of all 48 pieces best in every single case. The very special individuality of Gould is very special for me, and I am the sort of Gould-follower who can take more or less anything from him in Bach. For a distinguished version that places less weight on personal taste and temperament, and particularly for a version to recommend to newcomers as some kind of generally-acceptable ideal without idiosyncrasies, this one is going to take some beating.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Penguin Rosette Award Winner, 5 Feb 2006
Angela Hewitt's WTC Book I and II received the prestigious Penguin Guide "Rosette" award for excellence as well as high marks from the other UK classical music guide, Gramophone - which speaks to the stature of the recordings here. This set came early in Hewitt's massive traversal of Bach's major keyboard works - over a dozen CD's total. As compared to Book II, the preludes in this Book I set tend to be a bit more lyrical and musically charming where those of Book II are longer in length, denser in texture and more complex in scope (but certainly not with lighter moments).
If you are not a pianist - or are newer to classical music - some background may help here regarding the phrase, "Well-Tempered Clavier." Translated from the German, it basically means a keyboard (clavier) that is "evenly-tempered" or evenly-divided into twelve equal intervals of an octave. Before Bach, there was no agreement as to how to tune the keyboard, and many scientific and religious theories abounded. This compromised (12-semi-tone) approach of Bach had the main advantage of having all 12 major and minor keys in a tuning that is both convenient to the player and overall acceptable to the ear. So, without any tuning changes, the harpsichordist could play in any key at will and it sound good - something critical as the keyboard was gaining prominance. So, historically, these 48 pairs of preludes and fugues became a foundation of the Western tonal music system. They not only showcase this new system of tuning, but they also are a systematic exploration of harmony as well as a highly-structured method of keyboard teaching. This achievement brought Bach recognition as one of the great scientific practitioners of music - and even one compared as "the Issac Newton of Music."
Out of the many fine recordings, the preferred choices must certainly include Angela Hewitt's sets here - which are also some of the most beautiful in tone. To get a feel for Hewitt's sweet, lyrical style, listen to tracks 1, 5, 17 and see how she beautifully shapes the legato lines and uses her trademark light & gingerly touch to create truly lovely colorations and subtle moods. I don't think any other pianist has played such preludes (especially the C# major) with such sheer delicacy and luminescent beauty. But, Hewitt is much more than sweetness as seen in her precise articulations and clear progression through the complex fugues. In these she brings the needed "gavity" and intellectualism to such German-minded polyphonic works that Bach intended (such as the closing fugue).
As far as other recordings, Hungarian pianist, Andras Schiff, also gives a similarly attractive reading of the WTC - but perhaps not quite as elegant and pleasantly straightforward as Hewitt, who usually gives good "reference" readings with minimal interpretative excesses. Other versions of the WTC for the more serious classical collector or pianists would also include Rosalyn Tereck's recordings (a Bach legend), Glenn Gould (highly individual but with superb clarity of parts), Edwin Fischer (classic), Tatiana Nikolayeva (emaculate aria and noble tones) and Russian Sergey Schepkin (dazzling pianism with crisp, "plucky" articulations that remind one of Mikhail Pletnev) - although expect poorer sound quality for the pre-60's recordings. Frederich Gulda's recordings on Philips DUO are not in the top tier mostly due to a rather harsh sound quality (and style at times). Also, Daniel Barenboim just released his recordings of both books the WTC if you are a fan of that great pianist.
Speaking of sound quality, Hewitt's WTC is one of the few in her discography that has a slightly sub-standard sound quality (not as rich and "full bodied" as others)... maybe due to the fact it was one of her first on Hyperion. Other reviewers note this as well, but it should be not a "show stopper." Also, one other good reason to get Angela Hewitt's set (or any CD of hers for that matter) are her superlative liner notes (a small book of 16 full pages in English here). In these she outlines each prelude and fugue, giving both historic and musical details as well as the key music note figurations. All her notes are the best-in-class and allow a deeper enjoyment and satisfying learning experience. So, overall, Angela Hewitt's WTC Book I is a most superb, educational and delightful set of a landmark work in music history. Rating: 5 stars for performance but 4 stars for sound quality.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Now a buget re-issue, 21 Sep 2008
I agree wholeheartedly with the favourable reviews here - this is a truly great set. You may like to know that the two sets making up the whole of Angela Hewitt's 48 have been re-issued in a single 4-CD set for less than the price of this one (Bach - Well-Tempered Clavier). It's a womderful musical experience and a real bargain - don't miss it.
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