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wehecht said:
Indeed, I made the same observation when I met her some years ago. Since we're talking piano in this thread the benighted decision of Mr Perry to abandon sacd is really keenly felt when you consider that in Hewitt, Hamelin, and Hough, Hyperion has three of today's finest pianists being represented on lowly rbcd. Hewitt made the argument for sacd pretty forcefully, but to no avail. Her recordings are among the few I still buy on rbcd, and yes, I found the Liszt quite compelling, somewhat to my surprise, as much a matter of temperament as hand size.
Not that this helps everyone, but Hyperion has been releasing most of their recent recordings (last 3 years or so, with some older ones being added as well) on their website at "Studio Master" quality - the original recording resolution. For most recent recordings it's 24/96 stereo PCM.
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wehecht said:
Indeed, I made the same observation when I met her some years ago. Since we're talking piano in this thread the benighted decision of Mr Perry to abandon sacd is really keenly felt when you consider that in Hewitt, Hamelin, and Hough, Hyperion has three of today's finest pianists being represented on lowly rbcd. Hewitt made the argument for sacd pretty forcefully, but to no avail. Her recordings are among the few I still buy on rbcd, and yes, I found the Liszt quite compelling, somewhat to my surprise, as much a matter of temperament as hand size.
Yes, Hewitt beautifies the Sonata in a way I would not have thought possible or desirable. My bad on that one. Assumptions about her temperament went out the door when she moved on from recording Bach.
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Euell Neverno said:
Yes, Hewitt beautifies the Sonata in a way I would not have thought possible or desirable. My bad on that one. Assumptions about her temperament went out the door when she moved on from recording Bach.
Wow - I'm surprised at all the fans of Hewitt's Liszt disc here. I thought it was pretty average, although the SQ of her Faz is, I suppose, an attraction in itself. (I'm judging from the 24/96 download from the Hyperion site.) In general, I'm not one of her fans - she just seems too ordinary - three out of five stars at best (as I mention in my review on Amazon).
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Post by Simon V. July 11, 2015 (24 of 56)
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Chris from Lafayette said:
In general, I'm not one of her fans - she just seems too ordinary
I got her first recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier years ago on the unanimous recommendation of professional critics, but it never excited me and I finally gave it away to a charity shop last week.
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Post by Iain July 12, 2015 (27 of 56)
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Chris from Lafayette said:
Wow - I'm surprised at all the fans of Hewitt's Liszt disc here. I thought it was pretty average, although the SQ of her Faz is, I suppose, an attraction in itself. (I'm judging from the 24/96 download from the Hyperion site.) In general, I'm not one of her fans - she just seems too ordinary - three out of five stars at best (as I mention in my review on Amazon).
". . .her superbly serious performance, one that eschews all personal vanity, all preening mannerism and flamboyance, but which, with strength in abundance, locates the still centre at the heart of Liszt's raging heroics. . . Despite a catalogue brimming over with greatness -- Horowitz (his early 1938 recording), Arrau, Brendel, Gilels, Argerich, Richter, et al. Hewitt holds her own to such an extent that she makes you forget all about odious comparisons and isten instead to one of the great milestones of all music." Bryce Morrison
Hear hear. Just thought I'd repeat it, since you cited it in your review.
"Virtuosity is only the start. Here, in the B minor sonata and in the three youthful Petrarch Sonnets, Hewitt is magisterial. For many years Bach has been her calling card. Her Liszt is, if anything, yet more compelling." The Guardian
"For all the dazzling fireworks that Liszt ignites there are passages where the music turns in on itself, musing, rhapsodising, at times almost fading into the ether. This is where Hewitt’s interpretation scores over those that veer from one dramatic incident to another without paying due attention to the shaping of the quieter moments of bliss and repose. The musical contours here, whether the equivalent of softly rolling hills or of daunting Alpine peaks, are seamlessly drawn together in a continuous, flowing musical landscape – a landscape with its towering landmarks, to be sure, and niftily articulated in the central fugue but altogether conceived with a secure grasp of the music’s organic nature." The Telegraph
I'll grant you other reviewers, such as in Fanfare, didn't think her fireworks were adequate, but, after listening to her version, I find it much more pleasing than those artists who feel obliged to blast away throughout.
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Euell Neverno said:
". . .her [Angela Hewitt's] superbly serious performance, one that eschews all personal vanity, all preening mannerism and flamboyance, but which, with strength in abundance, locates the still centre at the heart of Liszt's raging heroics. . . Despite a catalogue brimming over with greatness -- Horowitz (his early 1938 recording), Arrau, Brendel, Gilels, Argerich, Richter, et al. Hewitt holds her own to such an extent that she makes you forget all about odious comparisons and [l]isten instead to one of the great milestones of all music." Bryce Morrison
Hear hear. Just thought I'd repeat it, since you cited it in your review.
. . .
I'll grant you other reviewers, such as in Fanfare, didn't think her fireworks were adequate, but, after listening to her version, I find it much more pleasing than those artists who feel obliged to blast away throughout.
Bryce Morrison is an idiot who should have resigned in disgrace after he was exposed in his review of the Joyce Hatto recordings of the Mozart Sonatas - a review in which he much preferred Joyce Hatto's renditions to Ingrid Haebler's. He also made some catty comment about Haebler's playing in the course of the same review. Unfortunately for Morrison, the "Joyce Hatto" recordings of the Mozart sonatas were the SAME Ingrid Haebler recordings he was ratting on. Later, the little parasite appeared on that BBC program about the Joyce Hatto scandal and tried to act as if he were one of the "experts" who discovered Barrington-Coupe's duplicity.
There's an unfortunate tendency among some listeners to believe that just because someone has well funded access to the public (in Morrison's case, The Gramophone), that same person must necessarily be an expert in his field. In the case of Bryce Morrison, nothing could be further from the truth! As I say, the guy is total scum IMHO. And people wonder why the subscription base of the Gramophone has been going down for years!
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Post by hiredfox July 13, 2015 (30 of 56)
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Chris from Lafayette said:
Bryce Morrison is an idiot who should have resigned in disgrace
As I say, the guy is total scum IMHO. And people wonder why the subscription base of the Gramophone has been going down for years!
Who is your lawyer, he must be pretty damned cute! ;-)
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