Angela Hewitt Residency, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

No-one plays Bach quite like Angela Hewitt. Born in Canada but also a citizen of the UK, Hewitt studied under the sainted French virtuoso Jean-Paul Sevilla. Based in London since 1985, she is often considered the foremost baroque pianist of her generation, and from 1994 to 2005 recorded a complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard music.
Hewitt’s interests and talents run wider than Bach, however. Over four nights in August, she will present three wildly different programs at the Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, as part of their concerts by candlelight series. Book now – tickets are going fast.
The residency begins on Saturday 1^st August at 8pm, with a sequence that stands at the heart of Hewitt’s repertoire – Bach’s Goldberg Variations (1741), one of the cornerstones of keyboard music. Her 1991 recording has been praised for its unaffected grace, and it is unlikely this transfer to a live setting will disappoint.
Two days later, at 8pm on Monday 3^rd, Hewitt will collaborate with the actor Roger Allam for a celebration of T. S. Eliot’s intellectually and spiritually charged Four Quartets. Around Allam’s readings, Hewitt will play some of Bach’s most intimate music, along with works from perhaps the twentieth century’s predominant religious composer, Olivier Messiaen. As a fusion of sublime music and poetry, this might be the most significant event of the residency.
Finally, at 7pm on Sunday 23^rd and at 8pm on Monday 24^th, Hewitt will join forces with renowned soprano Dame Felicity Lott for an evening of French music. The baroque piano works of Couperin and Rameau will be joined by the songs of some rarely performed late romantics, including Emmanuel Chabrier, André Messager and Reynaldo Hahn. Lott, whose lucid tones are undimmed by age, has long been a devotee of French ‘melodies.’ It promises to be a startling pairing.