New Bach

After dithering over how much of a perfectionist I wanted to be, I decided this version is not bad. This was recorded all in one take, with no editing other than removing some silence at the beginning and end and normalizing the audio.

WTC II No. 15 in G major

This Prelude and Fugue set is one of the easier ones, though as usual I found it challenging enough! It's taken me about 4 months to get to this point with it. There is a version of the fugue in this set that Bach called a "fughetta" that is even easier than the one here.

When I first looked at this music a few years ago, I thought it was a bit boring, but as usual with Bach, it has grown on me, and I like it very much now.

Angela Hewitt, in her liner notes for this piece, says that it "has lots of gaiety and charm," and that "not for the first time, Bach has a twinkle in his eye at the close."*

*From Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Angela Hewitt, piano, Hyperion Records.

Being pretty

There was a little dust-up over at Piano World this weekend. Some idiot made a nasty comment about Angela Hewitt's Bach, several other people chimed in to either agree or disagree, and someone posted a picture of her for some reason. The first idiot then made an even nastier comment about her appearance.* The thread degenerated further (if that is even possible), and the forum moderator locked it so no one could post anything else on it.

Hewitt is a highly accomplished pianist who has recorded a serious body of work and sells out concert halls all over the world. She runs a music festival in Italy every summer, and I believe she teaches as well. She is also a very attractive woman with a lithe figure (she was once a ballet dancer), clear skin, nice hair, and a warm smile. Yet some little twerp, protected by the anonymity of the Internet had no hesitation about saying some vile things about her playing and her looks.

Men do often seem to feel free to criticize a woman's appearance as a way of keeping her in her place and reminding her that if she's not attractive, she's not worth much. I was actually told by a male teacher once (while he was criticizing the way I dressed -- when I was a 22-year-old poor student in jeans and T-shirts) that women need to look better than men because there is a double standard.

I've never (not once -- really!) seen or heard a male performer criticized for his looks or the way he dresses, but it happens to women all the time, and not just performers. Women reading this, you know what I'm talking about, don't you? If someone isn't saying we're fat, they're calling us ugly or saying we don't know how to dress.

Sure, appearance is part of performing, but only part. Playing an instrument is hard enough without having to worry about whether you will get arrested by the fashion police.

*I'm not repeating what he said in either case because I don't want there to be two Internet hits on it.

Angela Hewitt and the Goldberg Variations

My husband and I went to hear Angela Hewitt play Bach's Goldberg Variations at Strathmore last night. What can I say about this except that it was a great concert? How often do you get the chance to hear a musician in her prime perform a major work that she knows inside and out? I will just comment with a few observations and leave the detailed analyses to those more expert than I.

We splurged on front orchestra seats on the keyboard side, so I had a clear view of the pianist's hands, body language, facial expressions, and even feet (though these were obscured somewhat by her long gown). The piano was a surprising Fazioli; I've only seen Steinways at this hall. We were wondering if this is a preferred piano for Hewitt, given her connection with Italy (she has a home there and spends summers running a music festival in Umbria, according to the program notes). The Fazioli did sound wonderful: so clear and smooth, without the boomy bass of the typical Steinway.

My husband remarked on how Hewitt moved her hands -- like dancers, especially in virtuosic passages that involved lots of leaps and cross-hand playing. She seemed to play without tension and with enjoyment, always producing a rich, full sound from the piano.

Hearing this made me want to play! This piece, of course (maybe one of these days), but just about anything else as well. Someone like Hewitt makes it seem like the simplest thing in the world: Just learn the music and play it -- no problem! And then I go home and slave over a couple of measures of a fugue, without quite getting it. Sigh. But just trying is worth it.

I was impressed that this large concert hall was almost full and that the audience listened with rapt attention for the almost hour and a half of the piece, with no intermission. There is at least enough civilization left for that to happen.

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Just adding: There was a rather grumpy review in the Washington Post that did not reflect my experience as a listener. The reviewer also gave a pedantic title to the encore, which was in fact an arrangement (I believe the famous one by Myra Hess) of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" from Cantata 147.

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