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Details
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall
University of York
York
YO10 5DD
England
Programme
Felix Mendelssohn – Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Op.35 no.1
Performers
Angela Hewitt – piano
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
One of the world’s greatest living pianists, Angela Hewitt’s interpretations of Bach have established her as one of the composer’s foremost interpreters of our time. Her award-winning cycle for Hyperion Records of all of Bach’s major keyboard works has been hailed by The Sunday Times as ‘one of the record glories of our age’. A selection of Preludes and Fugues from Book One of The Well-Tempered Clavier – including Bach’s timeless Prelude in C major, BWV 846 – is paired with the first of Mendelssohn’s Six Preludes and Fugues. A firm favourite of pianists and audiences alike, the influence of The Well-Tempered Clavier on Mendelssohn in the set can be easily heard. Shostakovich was also inspired by Bach to compose his cycle of Preludes and Fugues after hearing a performance of The Well-Tempered given by Tatyana Nikolayeva to mark the bicentenary of Bach’s death in 1950. The virtuosic finale of Barber’s Piano Sonata was written at the request of his friend and renowned pianist Vladimir Horowitz who, on hearing the work’s first three movements, suggested it should have ‘a very flashy last movement, but with content’! Bach’s Sixth Partita is a monumental and poignant work – conveying his profound faith and extraordinary intelligence, the suite is, without doubt, one of Bach’s greatest works for the keyboard.
