In the May 2009 edition of
BBC Music Magazine, in the letters to the editor section is a letter which I
will now quote in its entirety.
"Angela Hewitt regards her
previous work as too 'straight or square'. (I thought it was rather lifeless.)
[this is in the letter to the editor] As a child she may have been even more so,
and it is no wonder that she considered Glenn Gould's performances
'crazy'. Those of us who love Gould do know that his work is often
far-out, but we love it because of, or maybe in spite of, that. 'Crazy'
seems to indicate not only far-out but wrong in some way. There are no
wrong ways. If Bach were to be played with a boogie-woogie beat, most
would not like it, including me, but who can seriously call it wrong? Now
Hewitt says that she is more 'daring and authoritative'. Perhaps she is
entering her middle period and becoming less 'average' in her
performances.
In effect, she is moving closer to Gould. I will give
it a listen...." from: William F Wallace, Mississippi, USA.
Take that Angela and the
BBC music mag!! Like I've always said, there are no wrong
performances.....just different interpretations. Mind you, if the late
Frank Zappa had decided to take a whirl through some classical music it might
have come out "wrong"; but with tongue in cheek, can you imagine "Don't eat the
yellow snow" done to a Bach Cantata? As well, don't forget the famous 60's
group "The Swingle Singers" who did a version of Bach that was very interesting
but now would be put to the torch by the original instrument/authentic
crowd. Then again, there is Switched on Bach by Wendy Carlos. I
could go on but I've made the point. Hewitt is a fantastic performer but
she should be careful how she refers to her older and much beloved Canadian
icon.
Kind
regards,
Fred
Houpt
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