Bach - Fantasia and Fugue in A minor, Aria Variata, etc.

Angela Hewitt: piano

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 199 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 91 mb
Artwork @ 300dpi included

Total playing time: 67:41
Recorded 2004 | Released 2004

Recording:
3-5 February 2004, Henry Wood Hall, London

Hyperion CDA67499

Track listing:
1. Fantasia & Fugue in a, BWV 904: Fantasia
2. Fantasia & Fugue in a, BWV 904: Fugue
3. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Aria
4. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Variation I
5. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Variation II
6. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Variation III
7. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Variation IV
8. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Variation V
9. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Variation VI
10. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Variation VII
11. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Variation VIII
12. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Variation IX
13. Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana', BWV 989: Variation X
14. Sonata in D, BWV 963: I.
15. Sonata in D, BWV 963: II.
16. Sonata in D, BWV 963: III. Fugue
17. Sonata in D, BWV 963: IV. Adagio
18. Sonata in D, BWV 963: V. Thema all' imitatio Gallina Cuccu
19. Partie in A, BWV 832: I. Allemande
20. Partie in A, BWV 832: II. Air pour les trompettes
21. Partie in A, BWV 832: III. Sarabande
22. Partie in A, BWV 832: IV. Bourrée
23. Partie in A, BWV 832: V. Gigue
24. Suite in f, BWV 823: I. Prelude
25. Suite in f, BWV 823: II. Sarabande en Rondeau
26. Suite in f, BWV 823: III. Gigue
27. Adagio in G, BWV 968
28. Fugue in C, BWV 953
29. Jesu, meine Zuversicht, BWV 728
30. Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, BWV 691
31. Fantasia & Fugue in a, BWV 944: Fantasia
32. Fantasia & Fugue in a, BWV 944: Fugue

Reviews:
Gramophone
A fine musician completes her Bach keyboard journey with a choice selection

Miscellaneous Bach, but Angela Hewitt isn't scraping the bottom of the barrel. On the contrary, she has selected what appeals to her - pieces from 'different periods of Bach's life on this, the last planned CD of solo keyboard works'. Hewitt largely bows out on a high. The degree of preciosity that had crept into her playing of the English Suites has been eradicated, and her musicianship is of the stature that we have come to expect from a thoughtful artist.
A profound one, too, as her interpretation of the Adagio, BWV968, readily shows. This is a transcription (if not by Bach, possibly by his son Wilhelm Friedemann) of the first movement of the unaccompanied Violin Sonata in C major. It is, as Hewitt says, 'a strange and beautiful work' and she extols its qualities through a sustained line and lambent sonority. A similarly thoughtful attitude pays equal dividends in the Suite BWV823; the Prelude and Sarabande are introspective, the Gigue graceful yet sharply rhythmic, and the interpretation is enhanced by the attention paid to the importance of the left hand. Given the positive virtues that abound, it is puzzling to hear the Fugues BWV953 and 944 played in a detached manner. The tempi are well chosen, yet the expectations raised by Hewitt's own descriptions 'in joyous mood' and 'whirlwind moto perpetuo' respectively are not met. Still, it is the only lapse in a series of performances where freedom over articulation, phrasing, embellishment, dynamics and tempo is governed by an artistic sense of responsibility; and the whole recital is heard in a shrewdly balanced recording of fine tonal verisimilitude.

Musicweb
Angela Hewitt’s notes state that this is the last of her CDs of solo Bach keyboard works. It has been a significant series, a laudable one, and there’s no lessening in perception in this volume. It takes a disparate collection of works written over the course of Bach’s career. There are no obvious ties that bind them, though equally the programming as such is perfectly explicable. They show, as she says, great variety stylistically – and that’s one of the greatest of the pleasures to be gathered from this disc.

She certainly evokes the organ sonorities of the Fantasia and Fugue in A minor with commensurate clarity and precision in the Fugue; textures here are luminous, voicings apt, and there is no sense either of diminution of feeling or of unscaled extravagance. Similarly with the Aria Variata 'alla Maniera Italiana' which appears in Andreas Bach’s Book and was probably written in 1709. Like the Goldberg Variations the theme returns at the end. Hewitt disregards the Largo indication for the first variation taking it at a more animated tempo, which feels right, and her left hand pointing in the third variation is captivating. Similarly the sense of speed, accuracy and control is nowhere more apparent than in variation eight and her apposite ornamentation shows itself in the return of the theme in the last, tenth variation.

BWV963 is the only original keyboard sonata by Bach – the others are transcriptions or used material by Reinken. Here she vests the short second movement with great amplitude and prettily brings out the quixotic chicken and cuckoo imitations in the finale marked, as if one couldn’t guess, Theme all’imitatio Gallina Cuccu. Entertaining though it is to hear this rather unbalanced and eccentric sonata the Partie in A major has rather more depth. It was for long thought to be by Telemann and its highlight, as Hewitt suggests, is the second movement Air for trompettes – unique for Bach and tremendous fun to listen to as well, one imagines, to play. The Suite in F minor is an explicitly French influenced compound whose middle movement, a Sarabande en Rondeau, has a gentle gravity; it actually sounds rather reserved here, though her articulation is first class.

Elsewhere we can speculate on the (doubtful) Adagio in C minor; it’s derived from the opening movement of Bach’s violin sonata in C major BWV 968 but the arrangement may well be by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Her Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten is effectively realised and one can admire the control of her Fugal playing in the Fantasia and Fugue in A minor BWV944 which by virtue of good programming and symmetry matches the opening piece in the same key, BWV904.

Hewitt’s notes are written in a down to earth and attractive way and she has been afforded the same warm and yet detailed acoustic as was the case in previous volumes.

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