|
|
|
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
10 October 2004
Britten Sinfonia
Angela Hewitt piano/director
Jacqueline Shave director
The Cambridge-based Britten
Sinfonia is one of this country's most adventurous orchestral ensembles,
so what was it doing launching its first season on the South Bank with
a concert of Bach, Haydn and Mozart? With the programme dominated by two
Bach keyboard given from the piano there was something, if not radical
at least novel, about these performances. Even in this postmodern age,
period musicians tend to rule when it comes to Bach.
But then Britten Sinfonia's raison d'etre for this project was the collaboration
with Angela Hewitt, one of the most outstanding Bach interpreters, who
has made a name because of her preference for the piano over the harpsichord.
Bach's keyboard output seldom
sounds more sublimely musical than when in Hewitt's hands. Incapable of
producing an ugly tone, she brought balm and poise to Bach's lines.
It's not that she shows any
disregard for modern period practice. Quite the opposite, for there is
nothing remotely old-fashioned about her style. But she does achieve levels
of expressivity that other musicians miss. Especially in the slow movement
of the Keyboard Concerto No 7 in G minor, BWV 1058, the way in which te
sustained writing points towards Beethoven seemed entirely to justify
the richer possibilities of the piano.
Much of the Concerto No 2 in
E BWV 1053 is less obviously soloistic, and the strings made their mark
here. Hewitt kept the interest levle up by shading her part - not so much
as to give the period hairshirts heart failure but enough to distinguish
between strata of musical importance. The melancholy slow movement plumbed
deeper levels of feeling, and Hewitt's easy virtuosity made for exhilirating
cascades in the finale.
Hewitt played Mozart's Piano Concerto No 15 in B flat with just as much
style as she had brought to Bach. There was Chamber music-like communication
here [by the orchestra], spiced up by livley winds. Haydn's Symphony No
49 La passione [featured] sublime oboe interventions in the third
movement.
**** The Times
|
|
