Title: Rushed Playing, Not My Favorite Bach
Review: There is a deeply spiritual quality in Bach's music, that brings me closer to heaven every time I listen. This quality is present with such abundance in the Bach of the elderly Arrau and Kempff, that the music reached deeply into my soul and put me into tears at time.IMHO, it takes a very refined sense of control to balance the multiple voices in Bach's polyphonic keyboard music. On one hand, each line needs to be given its due independence and prominence, and yet, at the same time, together they should sound "at peace" with one another harmonically. Hewitt's playing is usually muddy in the bass lines (as compared to the clarity achieved by Glenn Gould, Arrau or Kempff, the latter two even did it on unmodified pianos). Hewitt's playing also lacks the fore-mentioned finesse control, that caused the louder passages to sound "noisy" and "nervous". Also, while her phrasing is usually very good, her shaping may be considered overdone for Baroque keyboard music.
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