Angela Hewitt – at St John’s College Auditorium
We are very grateful to Sir Noel Malcolm for his generous sponsorship of this concert.
J.S. Bach
Toccata in D major, BWV912
French Suite no.5 in G major, BWV816
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV903
Interval
Partita no.5 in G major
Italian Concerto, BWV971
Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV894
As a child Angela Hewitt listened to her organist father play Bach in Ottawa Cathedral, her career was launched in 1985 when she won first prize at Toronto International Bach Competition, in 2022 she completed her Bach Odyssey, a project to perform all J.S. Bach’s keyboard works in major venues around the world. It is wonderful to have her present a complete J.S. Bach concert for us.
The programme starts with Bach in his twenties, composing improvisatory toccatas at the court in Weimar. Next we catch him in Köthen, aged thirty and writing the French suites as teaching aids. Then on to Leipzig where, at fifty, he brilliantly reimagines an Italian Concerto for the keyboard.
At this point chronology is thrown to the wind. Prelude and Fugue in A minor is the work of a fiery young Bach eager to show off his virtuosity as a performer. The gigue fugue in perpetual motion never once lets up – an electrifying end to this concert.
Our thanks to St John’s College for their hospitality and support for the International Piano Series