United Kingdom R. Schumann, Mozart: Angela Hewitt (piano). Wigmore Corridor, London, 19.12.2023. (JC)
Mozart – Rondo in A minor, Ok. 511; Piano Sonata in F main, Ok. 533/494; Twelve variations on ‘Ah! vous dirai-je, maman’, Ok. 265/300e
Robert Schumann – Piano Sonata No.1 in F sharp minor, Op.11
Angela Hewitt gave a magical recital of Mozart and Robert Schumann’s music on the Wigmore Corridor. Publicly paying tribute to an in depth buddy of hers who died lately, in addition to acknowledging the loss of life of a well-recognized Wigmore Corridor trustee proper earlier than the recital, Hewitt’s enjoying in moments expanded right into a deeply private dimension which compelled us to carry our breaths and marvel on the purity of the music.
The live performance opened with some of the enigmatic and poignant of Mozart’s compositions, the Rondo in A minor, Ok. 511. Angela Hewitt’s interpretation allowed the lengthy chromatic melodies to interweave while paying shut consideration to the subtlest change in concord; not even the slightest semitonal step escaped her scrutiny, and the end result was a consistently shifting kaleidoscope of impressions, each fleeting and distinguishable directly.
However it was her efficiency of Mozart’s Sonata in F main, Ok. 533, that was maybe probably the most exceptional. She confirmed how naturally she understands the music via the dealing with of the repeats. Regardless of not altering a lot — neither including an excessive amount of additional ornamentation nor radically altering the articulation — Angela Hewitt managed to disclose the identical melodic themes in a totally completely different gentle. The air of spontaneity created by these tastefully delicate modifications made Mozart’s music come very a lot alive underneath Hewitt’s fingers. Whether or not or not these have been fastidiously thought-about modifications or spontaneous extemporisations is inappropriate; Hewitt made us hear Mozart as if we’ve by no means heard Mozart earlier than. By her interpretation, she confirmed her viewers how Mozart’s melodies reveal themselves to her and, mixed along with her refined style and sense of humour, made for a really compelling efficiency. Nor did she draw back from the extra surprising and dramatic moments within the Rondo motion of the sonata, which made the return of the identical music box-esque and pure first theme wildly completely different every time.
Following that Rondo motion, Angela Hewitt rounded off the primary half with Mozart’s variations on one other plain and easy theme, the favored French youngsters’s music ‘Ah! vous dirai-je, maman’. A decidedly much less distinguished composition than the 2 previous items — Mozart can’t be totally blamed; it is without doubt one of the plainest albeit eternally memorable melodies possible — Hewitt nonetheless confirmed a symphonic creativeness in her efficiency of this crowd pleaser, ending the primary half in a light-hearted temper.
Schumann’s underrated First Piano Sonata dominated the second half of the recital. A bit which requires nice bodily endurance and focus, it has usually been taken for a virtuosic showpiece, however Angela Hewitt highlighted the lyrical side of the music in her enjoying, giving different shapes to the slightly temporary, angular motifs which unfold throughout the sonata, contouring and linking them into one coherent complete. A few of Hewitt’s most lovely enjoying on this recital was within the second motion, the place she actually gave the melody time to slowly unravel and reveal itself in all its purity and fragility. After some very quirky and humorous moments within the Scherzo by which her enjoying might nearly make you snort, Hewitt took a deep breath and launched into the relentless finale. Taking it at a comparatively slower tempo, she confirmed how at her tempo lyricism may very well be present in probably the most surprising of locations. Her enjoying additionally captured the schizophrenic nature of the short alternations between Florestan and Eusebius, the duo of sensationally contrasting fictional characters in Schumann’s music, holding her viewers’s breath along with her capability for dramatic enjoying and ending the night with a grand flourish.
For her encore, Angela performed the gorgeous ‘Morgen!’ from Richard Strauss’s Vier Leider, Op.27, organized for piano solo by Max Reger.
Jeremy Chan
