Monday, March 24, 2008

Angela Hewitt and Glenn Gould - Apples and Oranges?

While listening to Bach played by the legendary Glenn Gould, I decided to listen as well to parts of the same music recorded by the great young pianist Angela Hewitt, also a Canadian as Gould was.
I became intrigued by the world of difference between the two. What they had to 'say' in their performances was equally powerful to me, and so I decided to place various pieces of the Bach Partitas back-to-back on a CD so that I could hear both artists in a contiguous form. The result, for me, was a defining experience. Gould replicates the spirit of the High Baroque in his wonderfully controlled attack-form which reminds one of the harpsichord. Hewitt brings Bach into the direct context of the modern piano's capabilities, which results in a greater degree of inflection and tempo plasticity . She evidently feels that Bach would have embraced the modern piano, knowing that instruments are in constant change; perhaps, that is the reason that he left virtually no tempo or dynamic indications for the keyboard music.
Whichever school of Bach-playing is agreed upon, the powers of both Gould and Hewitt are undeniable forces.
Listen to them back-to-back, and consider "who is better," or are we comparing apples and oranges?

Labels: ,