Angela Hewitt - Beethoven: Piano sonatas. Vol. 2 - Op. 28 "Pastoral", 13 "Patethique", Op. 2, No. 3 (2006) [SACD]

‘Angela Hewitt’s first installment in a projected Beethoven sonata cycle offers intelligent, stylish and often illuminating interpretations … fusing poetry and passion, Hewitt lets her long hair down and her fingers run wild’ (Gramophone)

‘Every bit as intellectually lucid, technically secure and focused, as her Bach … this exhilarating clarity of thought is matched by her clean incisive sound (well caught by the recording), and helps to contribute to the striking sense of purpose in these relatively early and still essentially classical works’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Angela Hewitt brings her trademark intelligence and poise to these fine recordings … in [the Appassionata] she shows a firm grasp of the work’s majestic architecture, realising each dramatic climax while steadily sustaining its momentum. But it is in the slow movements of the other two sonatas, especially the D major, that Hewitt is at her most affecting, her depth of feeling equal to the ‘great expression’ demanded by the composer’ (The Observer)
‘As this impressive new disc shows, it is a mistake to try to pigeon-hole Angela Hewitt’ (The Daily Telegraph)
‘Clarity, elegance, intelligence, a belief in letting the composer speak: the winner of the Gramophone Artist of the Year award parades her qualities in the first of a new Beethoven series that balances the overfamiliar Appassionata with the connoisseur’s Op 10 No 3 and neglected Op 7. There’s not a dead note anywhere. The largos find her piercing the depths; she’s equally impressive at quicksilver turns and tumbling cascades’ (The Times)
‘There’s red-hot fire in Hewitt’s belly as she tackles these three Beethoven masterpieces. The two earlier sonatas … glitter with adroit wit. The ‘Appassionata’ is startlingly explosive—as it should be’ (Classic FM Magazine)
‘A very promising start to another Beethoven cycle … if Hewitt continues on this trajectory, her Beethoven sonatas should be as enriching as her Bach has proved to be’ (Fanfare, USA)
‘Hewitt meets Beethoven head on. It will not do to call her a woman pianist. She is a pianist’s pianist, period, pure and simple, capable of holding her own with any number of brilliant men who have recorded this music. She has formidable finger strength. Her pianissimos have elegance and discretion, but her fortisssimos and sforzandos are clarion calls to rouse lovers of romanticism. Her response, say, to those familiar knuckle-crunching demands of the Appassionata’s last movement is gasp-inducing, yet she never blurs a note or lets a chord get crowded or ugly’ (Audiophile Audition, USA)
‘She throws herself into it body and soul, giving the disc the frisson of a concert performance (without so much as a smudged note), the thrill of a first hearing’ (International Piano)
‘After a magnificent series of Bach recordings, star pianist Angela Hewitt now turns her attention to Beethoven’s piano sonatas and if future releases are anything to go by this first disc, we are in for one of the most rewarding cycles of modern times. Her choice is well judged with Op 10 No 3 and the F minor Appassionata paired with the fiery Op 7, a lovely cocktail if there ever was one’ (Classical.net)

‘There’s nothing in the packaging or labeling of this, her first Beethoven CD, that promises recordings of all the sonatas, but don’t be too surprised if that’s what we eventually get. The three here are so good that Hewitt’s countless fans are unlikely to sit still for anything less than a complete cycle … once again she uses the superb sound of her instrument to create music of the greatest beauty’ (Ottowa Citizen, Canada)