Bach - Keyboard Concertos Nos. 1 & 7
Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
Bach - Triple Concerto
Hewitt; Australian Chamber Orchestra/Tognetti
Hyperion CDA67307
Release date June 2005

Bach - Keyboard Concertos Nos. 2-6
Hewitt; Australian Chamber Orchestra/Tognetti
Hyperion CDA67308
Release date June 2005

Prior to recording Bach’s Keyboard Concertos, Angela Hewitt performed them extensively with a variety of orchestras, finally choosing the 17-strong Australian Chamber Orchestra for the sessions. These marvellous players greatly contribute to the success of the project. Bach’s Keyboard Concertos are not straightforward to play effectively using modern instruments; the combination of a velvety concert grand and vibrato-laden string playing tends to blunt Bach’s sharply-etched lines. Hewitt is her usual dancing, articulate self, and the Australians’ crisply phrased playing, with minimal vibrato, is a pleasure to hear. Their playing is comparable with our own Scottish Ensemble in its verve, attack and infectious enthusiasm. Comparisons with Murray Perahia’s Academy of St Martin’s recordings leave me with a strong preference for the Hewitt/ACO versions. Perahia’s playing is commanding, and demands to be heard, but the Academy plays in exactly the same way that it did thirty years ago, and beside the Australians it sounds disappointingly flabby. Hewitt employs a harpsichord continuo, which adds ‘front’ to the ritornellos – and as Angela Hewitt remarks in her liner notes, purely continuo passages often sound ‘wrong’ played on the piano. (Her notes are typically stylish and informative – she’s especially good on the complex relationship between various movements of the concertos and the cantatas). Hewitt’s approach to ornamentation, by turns expressive and playful, sounds natural and fun. In addition to the standard keyboard concertos, Hewitt also includes the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, and the Triple Concerto, where she is joined by the SCO’s Principal Flute, Alison Mitchell, and Richard Tognetti, the ACO’s inspirational leader. If you fancy the Bach concertos played on the piano, look no further!

Reviewed by Sandy Matheson