Angela Hewitt and Chamber Players of Canada

I initially hadn't planned to go to Friday 18th May's Chamber Players of Canada concert featuring Angela Hewitt - Schubert's String Quartet No. 14, Death and the Maiden isn't really my thing. However, I had the chance to attend Friday's rehearsal. As part of 'Angela Hewitt Week' the rehearsal had been opened up to students from Glebe Collegiate, Carleton Heights Public School and Gowling Public School; there were also some attendees from the OrKidstra programme. Once all the students had arrived at Christ Church, the assembled musicians started by playing the final movement of Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44. The sound quality from my seat at the back was of a warm, mellow sound (matching the late morning sun outside) combined with an exciting peformance - the kids were hooked. Sufficiently hooked to sit through a good few minutes rehearsing before hearing the first movement from the Piano Quintet. In between playing, both Hewitt and Chamber Players' Julian Armour explained a few things to the audience.

After the Schumann, Hewitt remained on stage and spoke briefly before giving a short recital to the school students. They (we!) were treated to excellent performances, firstly of J.S Bach's French Suite No. 6 in E major, BWV 817 (my least favourite, but well played and the gigue at the end certainly entertained); Chopin's Nocturne in E flat, with Hewitt using the just-explained Fazioli to fully bring out the melody; and Granados' Andaluza. A mesmeric performance of Debussy's Clair de Lune, immediately followed by Golliwog's Cakewalk completed the rehearsal.

It turns out that Death and the Maiden was replaced on the programme for the evening performance by a Hewitt solo recital featuring pieces by Couperin and Ravel. Read Richard Todd's review here; more stories about Angela Hewitt Week are available from Ottawa Citizen CBC Music and All In A Day.

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