After her successful debut last season, Angela Hewitt returns to Sala 500 to perform works by her favourite composer. For the second concert of Pianisti del Lingotto series, the acclaimed Canadian pianist guides the audience through Johann Sebastian Bach’s vast catalogue, highlighting the variety of formal and stylistic models that has inspired his music.
Angela Hewitt (b. 1958) began her international career in 1985, winning the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition. Her decade-long recording of Bach’s complete keyboard works (1994–2004) established her as one of today’s leading Bach interpreters. Among her many honors, she was named Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Awards (2006), entered Gramophone’s Hall of Fame (2015), and became the first woman awarded the Bach Medal of Leipzig (2020). She has directed the Trasimeno Music Festival since its founding in 2005.
The program presents a fascinating journey through Bach’s creative world, from the virtuosic Toccata in D major, BWV 912 to the elegant French Suite No. 5, BWV 816, the dramatic Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903 and the inventive Partita No. 5, BWV 829. The Italian Concerto, BWV 971 captures the energy of a solo concerto without orchestra, and the Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 894 closes the program with a synthesis of expressive freedom and formal rigor.