A casual look at this album might suggest a gauzy crossover program of Romantic melodies, but that is actually not what pianist Angela Hewitt is up to here. The genre of song transcriptions for piano was a common one a century ago, and the variety of composers and arrangers here suggests how often such works might turn up on a recital program. Hewitt sets herself the task of exploring this repertory, and she succeeds in demonstrating its breadth while at the same time unifying the program with the love song theme. There are ...
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A casual look at this album might suggest a gauzy crossover program of Romantic melodies, but that is actually not what pianist Angela Hewitt is up to here. The genre of song transcriptions for piano was a common one a century ago, and the variety of composers and arrangers here suggests how often such works might turn up on a recital program. Hewitt sets herself the task of exploring this repertory, and she succeeds in demonstrating its breadth while at the same time unifying the program with the love song theme. There are a few well-known items, like the opening Liszt rendering of Schumann's Liebeslied - 'Widmung," S566, but also some decidedly unexpected personnel like Max Reger, whose four arrangements of Strauss songs have the detail of Reger's more chromatic works. Pianists Walter Gieseking and Wilhelm Kempff, from close to the modern era, are represented. Of course, arrangements of this kind wouldn't have been presented back to back in recital like this, but Hewitt's program is logically...
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Edvard Grieg; Franz Liszt; Franz Schubert; Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel; Gustav Mahler; Leopold Godowsky; Manuel de Falla;... New. New in new packaging. USA Orders only! Brand New product! please allow delivery times of 3-7 business days within the USA. US orders only please.
Add this copy of Love Songs to cart. $27.72, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Hyperion.
The Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt is renowned for her performance of major works in the piano literature, in particular the works of Bach and Beethoven, Couperin, Rameau, and Scarlatti, among many others. This CD offers a different view of Hewitt. It consists not of works originally written for the piano or keyboard but instead of transcriptions to the piano of intimate, short love songs. Of the 23 works on CD all but one are songs written for piano and voice. The exception is a beautiful transcription made by Hewitt herself of the fourth movement from the Fifth Symphony of Mahler.
In the liner notes, Hewitt writes that this recording was a project in her mind for many years. She turned to it at last during the pandemic of 2020 when she, and so many others, were forced to stay home and contend with their own thoughts. Hewitt reflected on the importance of music and love in her life, and in the lives of others, and this highly introspective, emotive CD of love song is the result.
This CD is a joy in its musical selections and in Hewitt's playing. She has always been a gifted pianist, but the performances on this CD are often transcendently beautiful and well-conceived and touch the heart. Many listeners will find the selections familiar, and most will find something new or hear beloved music in a new way.
A highlight of the CD is Hewitt's performance of Gluck's "Orpheus Lament and Dance of the Blessed Spirits" in the transcription by Wilhelm Kempff. I have loved Gluck's music and Kempff's Beethoven for a long time, and this performance was a treasure. Hewitt performs with feeling two songs of Schubert and three by Schumann in transcriptions by Liszt and others. I loved Hewitt's performance of George Gershwin's "Love Walked In" in the piano arrangement by Percy Grainger, the five Spanish songs by de Falla and Hewitt's own imaginative transcription of Mahler.
The five transcriptions of songs by Richard Strauss deserve to be mentioned separately because these works have not formed a large part of my listening experience. The Strauss songs were transcribed for piano by Max Reger. I have been listening to a new CD of Reger's piano transcriptions of songs of Brahms by pianist Rudolph Buchbinder and that CD of song transcriptions led me to Hewitt's earlier CD. I appreciated these songs of love by Strauss in Reger's settings in a way I hadn't before,. especially the transcription of Strauss's most famous song "Tomorrow!" Hewitt brought the feeling of this music through to me.
Hewitt's unusually detailed liner notes include the text and translations of most of the songs as well as her on thoughts on the music. She writes that as a pianist she keeps the words of the songs in mind as she plays in order to craft the phrasing and she recommends the listeners follow the words in order to sing along, if they wish. While I read and followed the texts, they seemed to me more of a distraction. I preferred to hear these performances as "songs without words" and to focus on the music and on Hewitt's artistry.
This is a beautiful CD coming from the depths of the heart during the lonely days of the pandemic. It is to be savored. Hewitt captures the mystery of love and of music.
