The last time I heard Angela Hewitt was ten years ago when she was the featured soloist at a music teachers convention at the Hyatt Hotel in Monterey. At that time the cards were seemingly stacked against her  — the Steinway concert grand sounded muffled and the concert was in an acoustically dead ballroom on a carpeted stage. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was the constant intrusive whir of the air conditioning that threatened to obscure her every nuance.
Well, this time all the conditions were superb and I heard an entirely different Angela Hewitt. Appearing in the San Jose State University Concert Hall as the featured artist for the Young Pianists’ Beethoven Competition, she was appearing in a solo recital on Friday evening and giving a master class the following day to selected participants of the Young Pianists Beethoven Competition.
In addition to the fine acoustics of the SJSU Concert Hall acoustics, the added bonus was a lovely Fazioli 7’6″ grand piano that sounded sensational — clear as a bell in every register with power to spare, plus the ability to produce a broad range of dynamics from the softest pianissimo to the grandest fortissimo.
Ms. Hewitt left no doubt in our minds that she had complete mastery over the works she played during the evening — Bach’s Partita No. 5 and English Suite No. 6, plus Beethoven Sonatas Op. 10, No. 3 and the ever popular “Moonlight” Sonata.
Although Ms. Hewitt’s expertise as a Bach exponent is well known, her Beethoven playing won her some new fans. Her Op. 10, No. 3 had plenty of excitement, but also subtle shades of expression where she would ease into a new phrase with a slight ritard, rather than rush into it headlong — a type of expressive device she made seem very natural. Speaking of expression, her performance of the profound slow movement was enhanced by a slower than usual tempo that found new meanings, and her last two movements were fleet and exciting.
The first movement of the ”Moonlight” Sonata was lovingly played with a flexible tempo that was surprisingly effective, and the violent intensity she achieved in the final movemet was a knockout.
The Partita in G Major didn’t reach the exalted hights of the rest of her program, for some of the playing seemed over pedaled and indistinct, but by the time she came to the English Suite No. 6 at the end of her program she was at the top of her form and produced a performance so vital and compelling it brought the audience to its feet for a spontaneous standing ovation. The final Gigue was amazing in the way she made it seem jazzy and contemporary.
I have to confess that the English Suite No. 6 is one of my least favorite keyboard works by Bach, but that is perhaps because I have been numbed by hearing stylistically pure (but anemic) performances on CD. Her playing proved how sometimes we are just waiting for the right performance of a work to grab us by the throat, ram us up against a wall and command our full attention.
An appreciative audience was rewarded with one encore, the slow movment, Adagio Cantabile, from Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata. It was lovely.
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