Angela Hewitt's Mozart and Bach Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Concert Hall, HK City Hall Reviewed: May 1
There was just one spot in this concerto programme (two each from J.S. Bach and Mozart) where piano soloist and director Angela Hewitt's careful attempts to present the works in proportion to their 18th-century provenance didn't click. That was the opening movement of Bach's Keyboard Concerto in G minor, BWV1058, where the orchestral string sound needed a more carefully lowered lid. Elsewhere, both in this work and its F minor partner, BWV1056, tasteful restraint held sway; perhaps too much so.
Quality and integration of sound is one matter; what the notes add up to is another. Whether it's a harpsichord, Hewitt's trademark Fazioli grand or other orchestral instruments the works may have been originally intended for, my preferred recipe is: make me dance in the first movement, flirt decorously with me in the second and dazzle me with detail in the last. Hewitt followed a more reserved ground plan.
What couldn't be faulted in the Mozart works, however, were her stamina and refusal to trot out off-the-peg banalities for the Piano Concertos Nos 20 and 27. The orchestral partnering was a delight, not least in the opening movement of No 27, which presented Hewitt as prima inter pares in an attractive dialogue that was more intellectual than dramatic; the players fed off each other without once disturbing the dynamic and textural balance.
The Romanza from No 20 had beautifully judged structural contrasts, allowing the finale to live more for the moment than the panorama. If there was one question mark, it hovered over the finale of No 27, sounding more holier-than-thou than will-o'-the-wisp. A few drooping eyelids in the seats around might have been sensing the same.