Bach Performance on the Piano
A Lecture-Recital by Angela Hewitt

Filmed by Uli Aumüller
Produced by Monarda Halle Ltd.

DigiBeta, PCM Stereo, 150 min
Plus concert recital, PCM Stereo & 5.1 Surround, ca. 60 min
(Partita 4 BWV 828, Chromatische Fantasie&Fuge, Italienisches Konzert BWV 971)

Classic FM Magazine review 2008

INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW 2008

The Times The Knowledge review 2008

GRAMOPHONE review 2008

GRAMOPHONE review April 2008

Bach Performance on the Piano by Angela Hewitt - Chapter I (audio only - 17 MB)

DVD-Projekt mit Angela Hewitt (vgl. S.38 GRAMOPHONE 2/2007)

Doppel-DVD zum Preis von 25,00 €

Preface by Angela Hewitt

Hello and Welcome to this lecture-recital on the interpretation of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach.  For many years now, I have wanted to put on film my thoughts about how to play Bach on the modern piano—a subject I have lectured on frequently.  Finally doing so gives me the opportunity to share with musicians and music-lovers around the world the knowledge I have gained and the experiences I have had during many decades of studying and performing his music. 

For those of you who play the piano and study it seriously, I hope this lecture will serve as an inspiration to look at his compositions with renewed interest and understanding.  For those of you who don’t, and I hope there will be many, I will be happy if at the end of it all you have a greater appreciation for all the thought, technical skill, and musical intelligence that must go into learning a single page of his music. 

Even in the short and relatively easy C major Two-Part Invention that we have just heard, a piece that is attempted by every piano student, there are a whole series of problems to solve and questions to be answered. 

Many people don’t realize that in Bach’s day, few indications (if any at all) were written in the score to guide the interpreter.  It just wasn’t done:  you were expected to know the basics which would have been passed down from teacher to pupil, from father to son.  Learning an instrument went hand in hand with learning how to compose. 

These days the two are rarely taught together.  Much more freedom was given to the interpreter as long as they stayed within the realm of what was considered good taste, a bit like saying to a guest “Please make yourself at home, but don’t make a mess!”  Craft and performance were closely related.  That is the reason why I have chosen to make this film in the unusual environment of a state-of-the-art piano factory. 

For the past twenty-five years, Paolo Fazioli has been making some of the world’s finest grand pianos here in Sacile, just an hour from Venice.  His high level of craftsmanship in piano manufacturing is, in my opinion, unsurpassed, and since I will be talking about playing Bach on the modern piano rather than the harpsichord for which it was originally written—what better place to film than here where the instruments are made.

Directed by
Uli Aumüller

Edited by
Stefan Gagstetter
Uli Aumüller

Camera
Boris Fromageot
Michael Bommers
Andre Schume

Sound Recording
David Kammerer
Ludger Böckenhoff

Sound Editing
Michael Scharifi
Uli Aumüller

Recording Producer
Nico Heinrich

A production of

Angela Hewitt
Monarda Publishing House Ltd.
Inpetto Filmproduktion GmbH

and

Hyperion Records Ltd.

© Angela Hewitt / Hyperion Records 2007