©Keith Saunders

This is an archived event

Angela Hewitt

Mozart and Schumann

(Fri 6 Oct 2023 8.00pm  Little Missenden Church)


Angela Hewitt piano


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Rondo in D major K485; Sonata in F major K533/494; Twelve Variations K265

Robert Schumann: Sonata no1 op11 in F# minor

Programme Notes (also available free at concert)

Constructed with typical ingenuity, Mozart’s Twelve Variations on the French folksong Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman (Twinkle twinkle little star to us) was written when he was 25 and became an instant hit with amateur players. The later K485 Rondo is another of the composer’s most familiar and well-loved works. It’s cheerful and unfailingly upbeat, playfully toying with our expectations.

The K533/494 Piano Sonata came late in Mozart’s career. It’s a fascinating piece, expanding traditional sonata form and, particularly in the beautiful andante, full of rich tonal variation and harmonic dissonance.

Fifty years later, Schumann’s op11 shows us how much the piano sonata had changed. Composed in the mid-1830s when he had recently met Clara and their relationship was beginning to develop, the work’s a love poem – “a solitary outcry to you from my heart” as he later described it to her. The Eusebius and Florestan personae he so often invokes to contrast the reflective and exuberant sides of his character are both in evidence, especially in the beautiful aria second movement, which is followed by a wildly inventive scherzo.

One of the world’s leading concert pianists, Angela Hewitt appears in recital and as a soloist with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Asia. Her playing of the music of JS Bach has established her as one of the composer’s foremost contemporary interpreters. She was awarded an OBE in 2006; in 2015 was promoted to a Companion of the Order of Canada – her country’s highest honour; and in 2018 received the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Ottawa. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, has seven honorary doctorates, and is a Visiting Fellow of Peterhouse College, Cambridge.

“She seems to me the complete performer, gifted not only with fingers that imprint each note with a svelte newness and a mind that is not deflected by such precision work from calmly surmising the larger structure, but also with the ability to convey a spiritual seriousness…” Paul Driver, Sunday Times

www.angelahewitt.com

Concert sponsored by the Friends of the Little Missenden Festival

Online booking is managed by TicketSource. This event may be booked from the Tickets link on this page but, when booking for multiple events, it may be more convenient to use our Little Missenden Festival page on TicketSource.

 

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Fri 6 Oct 2023 8.00pm

Little Missenden Church

Online booking is managed by TicketSource. This event may be booked from the Tickets link on this page but, when booking for multiple events, it may be more convenient to use our Little Missenden Festival page on TicketSource.

Angela Hewitt plays Bach's Goldberg Variations BWV 988 - Aria