Angela Hewitt - Angela Hewitt plays Handel & Haydn (2009) [Hi-Res]

Angela Hewitt's 2009 Hyperion disc of keyboard works by Handel and Haydn suggests that with her playing of Bach and Beethoven, the Canadian pianist has been taking time away from what she clearly ought to be doing, because she seems ideally equipped for the music of Handel and Haydn. She has the clarity of tone to elucidate the lines and the dexterity of technique to articulate the filigree, the intensity to get down in the slow movements and the velocity to get going in the fast movements. While those qualities would serve her equally well with any composer, Hewitt also has the vivacity of spirit to bring these particular composers' music to life. Her take on Handel's Chaconne in G major and suites in F major and F minor captures all the nuances of that composer's characteristic invention. Her approach to Haydn's Variations in F minor and Sonata in E flat major reveals all the subtleties of that composer's distinctive warmth and wit, as well as, in the Variations, his dry-eyed pathos. Recorded in crystalline digital sound, this disc deserves to be heard by all of Hewitt's fans, as well as her detractors. -- James Leonard