Bach Book For Piano

You may have heard about the harmonious relationship that exists between brave little birds and crocodiles, whose teeth they pick clean. Is it not so with pianists, and composers, whose works they play? Angela Hewitt has been associated with the works of JS Bach ever since she began winning trophies at various Bach competitions in the 1970s and 80s, and the partnership resulted in a catalogue of CDs for the Hyperion label, a DVD, and now this book of Bach arrangements and transcriptions. In 1932, Harriet Cohen produced a similar book with transcriptions of Bach’s music by 12 British composers. Angela Hewitt’s book contains 11 pieces: two of them, by Walton, and Howells, are the same as those found in Cohen’s book. Three of the transcriptions are by Hewitt herself, and if you’ve listened to Hewitt’s Bach arrangements CD, you will recognise them as the music for three chorale preludes for organ. The six remaining pieces in the book were commissioned by the Wigmore Hall, and have been written by an array of international composers, including Kurt Schwertsik, Dominic Muldowney, Elena Kats-Chernin, Brett Dean, Robin Holloway, and Yehudi Wyner. These range from straightforward transcriptions, such as Dean’s reworking of the chorale ‘Gute Nacht, o Wesen’, to short pieces inspired by Bach, such as Kats-Chernin’s rambling, but fun, Bach Study that was written as a ‘refl ection’ on Bach’s Cello Suite in G major. Diffi culty level throughout the book is Grade 8 and above, although the Brett Dean transcription mentioned above is considerably easier.

Pianist Magazine, septembre 2011