Angela Hewitt, Canadian pianist extraordinaire, demonstrated sublime mastery in her refined, engrossing delivery of Book II of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier” at Gates Concert Hall on Wednesday.
Continuing her performance from Sept. 30 in which she inaugurated the Friends of Chamber Music’s new piano series with the first 24 preludes and fugues that make up Book I, Hewitt’s magnetic rendering of the same number of preludes and fugues in Book II opened the Friends’ regular season.
Playing on a fabulous Faziola grand piano – Hewitt’s instrument of choice – the Bach cognoscente not only uncovered the gentle sweetness and numinous qualities of his series of instructional works, but also the oft-overlooked zest, animation and passionate undertones therein. Just as Bach would surely have played his own compositional creations, had such a mighty instrument been available to him.
After a somewhat bumpy start in Prelude No. 1 in C Major, the remaining sets of preludes and fugues – an exacting and exhaustive exploration of every major and minor key – were rendered with perfect care and cohesion. Each trill, turn, grace note and mordent was in its place, buffed and polished to a luster.
And, as if the colossal challenge of performing two 2 1/2- hour recitals in such close
succession isn’t setting the bar high enough, Hewitt proved that she possesses not only the necessary technical dexterity and endurance but the ability to emotionally engage the audience for the duration.
Among the virtues of Bach’s brilliant and intellectually crafted musical constructions is that the listener has the option to take a back seat and simply submit to the often subdued effect of the densely clustered counterpoints. But Hewitt offered the rare and unforgettable opportunity to be fully involved as an active listener, journeying alongside the virtuoso into worlds of arpeggios, carefully spaced harmonies and precisely measured phrases, lightly whispered inner voices and commanding, directive exclamations. Her pensive and poignant interpretation of Prelude 12 in F minor stands out as especially memorable.
In a word, Hewitt is a standard-bearer.
