Sometimes an unusual interpretive approach or seldom noticed details signify that the performer in question is following the composer’s score rather than adhering to interpretive tradition. That’s certainly true regarding Angela Hewitt and Beethoven’s so-called “Funeral March” sonata. The first-movement variations stand out for the pianist’s seamless tempo relationships, timbral diversity, and characterful distinctions between legato and detached phrases. Her dynamism and razor-sharp linear interplay fuse equal doses of excitement and control in the Scherzo, which leaves Paul Lewis’ dainty deliberation back at the starting gate. The Funeral March is steady and stern, while by contrast Hewitt’s agogic stresses in the Allegro finale help clarify the busy textures’ part-writing and cross-rhythmic grammar.
Hewitt allows similar leeway in the F major Op. 10 No. 2 first-movement exposition, animating the music with stinging yet never obtrusive accents and thrusting left-hand accompaniments. Hewitt’s subtle balances in the Allegretto evoke the give and take of a seasoned string quartet, although she’s a little too cool and careful in the Presto finale compared to, say, Richard Goode’s tauter, more playful abandon.
I’ve no qualms about Hewitt’s sensitive, technically impressive Op. 90, except that the tiny expressive holdbacks in the first movement’s soft-echoed phrases pull focus from the main theme’s implicit alla breve continuity (Moravec is right on the money here). On the other hand, her flexibility and lyrical warmth give shape and dimension to the “Moonlight” sonata’s hackneyed Adagio sostenuto. If only I could morph her superb articulation and dynamic scaling in the second and third movements with her label-mate Steven Osborne’s brisker, more incisive tempos. As always, Hewitt provides her own informative and well-written annotations.
