JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on or have recently completed. Why exactly do they matter to you and why should they matter to us?
ANGELA HEWITT: Since September 2016 I have been on my “Bach Odyssey,” performing all the major solo keyboard works of J.S. Bach around the world. It takes 12 recitals, and it was supposed to be 3 recitals each season, but at the moment I find myself with 6 of those all at once within the space of a few months (two mammoth recitals with the complete Well-Tempered Clavier; the complete Toccatas, the complete English Suites and other works, and the Goldberg Variations). If you are familiar with the music, you can perhaps start to imagine what that means (i.e. a lot of work!). It’s not often that one person performs the complete works in such a short time, and of course they are all pieces I recorded from memory between 1994 and 2005 (with the exception of the Art of Fugue which I did in 2013). So, I think it’s quite a unique event, not just for me but for the people who come and listen to the concerts. It’s wonderful to be reminded time and time again what a genius Bach was and how emotionally fulfilling his music can be. At the same time, I am finishing my cycle of all the Beethoven Piano Sonatas for my record label, Hyperion. That has taken me something like 14 years. It gives me huge satisfaction to know I just have one sonata left to learn—even if it is “only” the huge “Hammerklavier”, Op. 106.
JS: How did doing these projects change you as a person and as a creator?
AH: They keep me busy and keep me on my toes. There’s no room to hide in this music. You have to still practise it like mad. So, I’ve kept up my standards and even improved on them. Working on both Bach and Beethoven all the time makes you a better musician every day.
JS: What might others not understand or appreciate about the work you produce or do?
AH: How much work it takes. I never stop. People probably think, “Oh Hewitt and Bach: she must know that by now!” But I don’t take one note for granted, no matter how often I’ve played a piece in the past.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work?
AH: Everything. Heart and mind in equal measure. Plus, it’s hugely physical. A concert pianist really has to look after him/herself to keep going and to keep in shape. Lots of massages, stretches, osteopathy, walking….
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
AH: To find enough time to do everything I want before I get even older. Mind you, I haven’t wasted one second of my life, so it’s not like I have to make up for lost time. Just that there is so much beautiful music written for the piano. Actually, the hardest thing at the moment is trying to decide what I want to play in 2-3 years’ time. Concert promoters always want to plan that far in advance, and are bugging me already about programmes for 2021 and 2022. At the moment I just want to get the Bach and Beethoven projects finished and then collapse in a heap for a few weeks (days??!!)!
JS: Imagine that you are meeting two or three people, living or dead, whom you admire because of their work in your form of artistic expression. What would you say to them and what would they say to you?
AH: Oh, I don’t know…. I know people often ask this question, but you know…. when pianists get together, they usually talk about practical things like hotels, good and bad pianos they’ve encountered along the way, conductors (also good and bad!), and food. Of course, if Bach were around, there’s lots I would ask him about tempi and articulation. Probably just to hear him play would be enough. He would no doubt be amazed at somebody like me who has performed in public all his keyboard works—something never done in his day.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that helped to make you who you are as a creative artist.
AH: When I began my piano studies with French pianist Jean-Paul Sevilla at the University of Ottawa. I was 15 years old, and he opened up to me the whole world of the piano repertoire—most of which he could play himself. French music figured largely, of course, and I am indebted to him to this day for passing on to me his love and knowledge of that very particular repertoire—much of which I’ve recorded (Ravel, Faure, Debussy, Chabrier, Messiaen).
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
AH: That I don’t mind being alone so much. A pianist has to be able to stand being alone—all those hours practising, travelling, doing business—but that in the end you actually like it and it becomes a way of life.
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet that you would like to do in the arts? Why the delay so far?
AH: Learn the Hammerklavier Sonata by Beethoven, as I said above. I’ve left the biggest one for the last—also because I’ve never really liked listening to that piece—it always seems so ugly. But I trust Beethoven and I’m sure when I get round to it, I will love it—as has been the case with his last Sonata, the Op. 111, which I just learned and performed for the first time. I used to hate hearing Op. 111 in all the piano competitions I did as a young pianist—usually banged to bits and often boring. Now I adore it and just to think about it has me in tears.
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts, how would you change it and why?
AH: I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve been happy with how my life has worked out. And I’ve shaped my career in the way I wanted it—not allowing myself to be pushed into anything I wasn’t comfortable with by publicity people or agents.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
AH: I think people still want to go to exciting live performances. I get wonderful audiences in many parts of the world, especially at my Trasimeno Music Festival that I hold in Umbria, Italy every summer. Nothing can match hearing great music well performed in breathtakingly beautiful historic venues. But I think it’s important for the artist to have contact with their audience. It’s no good to be aloof and distant. In Asia there is a huge and very young audience for classical music. So, there its future is not in doubt. Unfortunately, the music world is also a big business, and one often wonders how some artists have managed to make a big name for themselves. But I think it was forever thus. I hope that the many gifted young artists who are just beginning their careers will still have many opportunities to perform—and if not, they just have to somehow create their own!
JS: What exactly do you like about the work you create and/or do?
AH: It keeps me busy and out of mischief. And gives enormous pleasure to people all over the world. I like to see people moved after a performance—if they’ve been crying, then that’s the best!
JS: In your creative life thus far, what have been the most helpful comments you have heard about your work?
AH: My record producer from Germany, Ludger Böckenhoff, is very strict with me in recording sessions. We’ve worked together for 25 years. He can say something is good (and also why), and also tell me what needs improving. We listen to each take of a piece together—in fact we spend just as much time listening during a session as playing. Thanks to him, I always come out of a recording session feeling that I’ve done my best at that particular time. We inspire each other, and never settle for something which is just OK.
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising things about you?
AH: That after 58 years of playing the piano, I’m still going strong and not giving
