The 50th album from Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, out today on Hyperion Records, completes her latest major project for the label; Hyperion has been her lifelong recording partner for 31 years.
This double album ranges from the simplest and easiest of Mozart’s piano sonatas – the K545 “Sonata facile” played by a million students of piano every year – to the composer’s last and most profound piano sonatas. In between come the charming Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, maman”, better known in the Anglosphere as the tune to the nursery rhyme “Twinkle, twinkle, little star”.
Once again, the pianist presents her own scholarly and meticulously-researched booklet notes, born of years of practical performance and academic understanding of each sonata’s place within the composer’s wider output. Commenting on the experience of playing and recording Mozart, Hewitt says, “When you play the complete works of Mozart, you get the most wonderful feeling for what his own playing must have been like. You feel how the music was created under his fingers; the joy he took in not only composing but showing off what he could do; but also his temperament – the comedy, the tragedy, the melancholy. A life full of characters, situations, games, dance, and especially song. To play Mozart well, you must imitate a great singer, you must dance, and you must be a great conductor alongside playing your instrument.”
Angela’s 31 prolific years on Hyperion have so far included the complete solo keyboard works of J.S. Bach to tremendous acclaim: Goldberg Variations, Well Tempered Clavier, and the Toccatas.
One of the world’s leading pianists, Angela Hewitt is especially renowned for her recordings of all the major keyboard works of Bach, described as “one of the record glories of our age”. In 2020 she was presented with the City of Leipzig Bach Medal: a huge honor that for the first time in its seventeen-year history was awarded to a woman.
Her 50-album discography also includes recordings of Couperin, Rameau, Scarlatti, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Chabrier, Granados, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, and Messiaen, as well as all thirty-two of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. In 2015 she was inducted into Gramophone’s Hall of Fame thanks to her popularity with music-lovers around the world.
Winning First Prize in the 1985 Toronto International Bach Piano Competition launched her international career. Angela Hewitt appears all over the world in many of the most prestigious concert halls, from New York’s Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. Her own annual Trasimeno Music Festival takes place each summer in Umbria, Italy, and features international artists as well as recitals, chamber music and concertos from Hewitt herself. Her masterclasses, writings on music and booklet notes for her recordings are all hugely popular.
Angela was awarded an OBE in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours, and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2015. In 2018 Canada further honoured her with the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2020 Angela was awarded the Wigmore Medal in recognition of her services to music and the relationship she has had with the London hall for over thirty-five years.
Upcoming U.S. Tour Dates:
June 11, 2025 – Ravinia (Highland Park, IL)
June 13, 2025 – Rockport Chamber Music Festival (Rockport, MA)
June 17, 2025 – Carnegie Hall (New York, NY)
Album Tracklist
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791)
1. Fantasia in C minor K475 (1785)
Piano Sonata in C minor K457 (1784)
2. Molto allegro
3. Adagio
4. Allegro assai
Piano Sonata in F major K533/494 (1788)
5. Allegro
6. Andante
7. Rondo: Allegretto
Piano Sonata in C major ‘Sonate facile’ K545 (1788)
8. Allegro
9. Andante
10. Rondo
11. Rondo in D major K485 (1786)
12. Gigue in G major ‘Eine kleine Gigue’ K574 (1789)
Variations on Ah vous dirai-je, maman
‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’ K265 (1781/2)
13. Thema
14. Variation 1
15. Variation 2
16. Variation 3
17. Variation 4
18. Variation 5
19. Variation 6
20. Variation 7
21. Variation 8
22. Variation 9
23. Variation 10
24. Variation 11: Adagio
25. Variation 12
Piano Sonata in B flat major K570 (1789)
26. Allegro
27. Adagio
28. Allegretto
Piano Sonata in D major ‘The Hunt’ K576 (1789)
29. Allegro
30. Adagio
31. Allegretto
32. Adagio in B minor K540 (1788
33. Rondo in A minor K511 (1787)