Angela Hewitt

by Saverio Pacchioni  

As for beauty Umbria is in no way inferior to Tuscany, in fact it has been better preserved and probably meets even more that harmonious whole of landscape, light, culture and lifestyle that one expects to find in Italy.

This must be the opinion  of the pianist Angela Hewitt, the most celebrated Bach interpreter of our days, to the extent that she spends in Umbria most of the year.

However, she will be soon again in Florence to fill our ears with real pleasure

The programme largely pivots around the first three French Suites, together with the Fifteen Inventions and the Toccata e Fuga 911.

Apparently it is an ‘educational’ concert, since Bach composed all of these works as teaching material for his family and his students. However this purpose doesn’t make them less fine at all.

Suite (from French suivre: to follow) is the name of the Baroque sonata when its movements are made up of dances, typically allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue as backbone, and others varying each time. Of French origin it developped much at first in Italy and then in Germany where was also called Partita. The French Suites are very expressive and intimate in character. In spite of the title and the French names of each dance they have been so called mainly to distinguish them from  the English Suites, compared to which they are more simple and shorter. The Inventions were composed to develop awareness of melody as well as the skills to play the counterpoint. Finally, in the Toccata e Fuga a Fantasia blends into an Adagio and then into the Fuga, during which the opening Fantasia reappears shortly, in a continuous stream of music.

Teatro della Pergola – Firenze

Saturday, January 14, 2012 – 4.00 p.m.