Australian Chamber Orchestra directed from the violin by Richard
Tognetti – Hyperion CDA67307 & 67308 (2 CDs, 77 & 75 mins.,
also available on SACD):
If Angela Hewitt’s Bach series to date has established a standard of
excellence for what can be done with a modern piano in the composer’s
solo repertoire, these two new discs devoted to concertos have raised
the standard to an entirely new level.
It is as if the clear precision of Glenn Gould were used as the
starting point for an excursion of unbounded joy and beauty. Each tone
that Hewitt strikes has a distinctly percussive but nevertheless subtle
and extraordinarily seductive ring to it, and the collaboration between
her and the sensitive modern-instrument orchestra is marvelous. Hewitt
benefits enormously by having Richard Tognetti, an extremely talented
musician (with a superb recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto to
his credit) who has yet to make his impact felt in the U.S., as her
partner in these wonderful performances. And these are not just a
series of cookie-cutter interpretations; each concerto has a
distinctive character.
In addition to the more or less standard seven solo keyboard concertos
on two very well-filled discs, Hyperion generously also throws in the
fifth Brandenburg (with a gripping performance of the first movement
cadenza) and the always enigmatic but affecting Triple Concerto in A
minor. In sum: impossibly anachronistic, but dazzling and irresistible
just the same.
Ludger Böckenhoff’s recording made in Verbrugghen Hall at the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music is of such great depth and airiness that this
will be become one of those demonstration discs that you delight in
playing for friends.
– Laurence Vittes
