Angela Hewitt - Robert Schumann: Humoreske Op.20 ; Sonata No.1 in F sharp minor Op.11 (2007)

Sonata, fantasia, humoresk: what’s in a name when Schumann’s lyric muse lets inspired ideas loose in such profusion? Never have they sounded easier or more natural than in Angela Hewitt’s seemingly effortless but always adventurous interpretations. It’s not surprising that in her liner notes, gossipy on background and amiably personal on the music, she tells us she finds the F sharp minor’s second-movement Aria ‘one of the greatest moments in all the works of my repertoire’; her poise and amplitude lend it an unearthly beauty. Hyperion are bold to unleash another first-rate pianist on this work after Nikolai Demidenko; Hewitt is less temperamental, not so obviously volatile in switching between the extrovert Florestan and introspective Eusebius sides of Schumann’s personality, but more anchored. Refusing to be hurried, she holds our attention as no other pianist has, in my experience, quite managed in the giant rondo of a finale, and she makes the repeat of the first movement’s Allegro vivace sound like its own development. There’s similar variety in the more hallowed returns of the Humoreske’s most striking inventions; again, in the Chinese boxes of this equally individual work, such passages sound completely new second time round, and everything hangs together. Radu Lupu is a touch more mercurial here, but Hewitt’s well-grounded personality still lets everything breathe as it should, and it all adds up to a surprisingly organic whole. Handsome in fortissimo and mesmerising in sotto voce, the piano range is well served by Hyperion’s Italian-based recording.

Review by David Nice, BBC Music Magazine

Angela Hewitt and Schumann’s First Piano Sonata date back at least to 1982, when the young pianist recorded it for the tiny Canadian label Damzell. She returns to the work a quarter-century later, where her seasoned hands and sympathetic musical mind work in concentrated tandem. Hewitt’s astute sense of textural diversity and well-judged rubatos help unify the discursive outer movements and colorize their contrapuntal sequences. Her classical poise and impeccable balances hold much to admire in the Scherzo and Intermezzo, even if other contenders prove more willing to let the music’s inherent giddiness rip (I’m thinking of Hyperion’s earlier release with Demidenko). While I prefer a faster basic tempo and calmer, steadier line in the Aria (Klara Würtz’s version, for example), Hewitt justifies her drawn-out deliberation by virtue of her masterful legato pedaling.

Similarly, she maintains a fresh palette throughout the Humoreske’s unpredictable thematic discourse and wild swings of mood while uncovering voicings and articulations that sound novel yet totally reflect Schumann’s wishes. For example, go to track 6 and hear how Hewitt veils the right-hand melody so that the left-hand counterlines may better come into focus, or notice the pianist’s strong attention to the composer’s offbeat cross-rhythmic accents. You won’t find Horowitz’s smoldering subjectivity, nor the mercurial swing with which Radu Lupu and Freddy Kempf set fire to your ear, yet Hewitt’s obvious care, forethought, and genuine affinity for the idiom are likely to wear well for the long haul. As always, Hewitt provides her own vivid and informative booklet notes.

Review by Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 27. February 2012, 20:47

Angela Hewitt / Schumann. Piano Sonata No.1, Humoreske

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7260S Adapter: 2 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 13:51.61 | 0 | 62385
2 | 13:51.61 | 4:31.15 | 62386 | 82725
3 | 18:23.01 | 5:27.34 | 82726 | 107284
4 | 23:50.35 | 13:06.33 | 107285 | 166267
5 | 36:56.68 | 5:44.37 | 166268 | 192104
6 | 42:41.30 | 5:24.11 | 192105 | 216415
7 | 48:05.41 | 4:33.38 | 216416 | 236928
8 | 52:39.04 | 6:32.27 | 236929 | 266355
9 | 59:11.31 | 6:41.74 | 266356 | 296504


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename D:\Schumann. Piano Sonata No.1, Humoreske. Angela Hewitt.wav

Peak level 98.4 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 02F347C9
Copy CRC 02F347C9
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [7338D2EC] (AR v1)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [B3BC81E2] (AR v1)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [7C8CCA9C] (AR v1)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [9F7F6A4E] (AR v1)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [2BA6DE5D] (AR v1)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [DB3E42D3] (AR v1)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [4F86C294] (AR v1)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [8EE68B83] (AR v1)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [A251DB01] (AR v1)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.3

[CTDB TOCID: eTLlk_Cr8Ers8d1kJ3mhDXIwYSg-] disk not present in database, Submit result: eTLlk_Cr8Ers8d1kJ3mhDXIwYSg- has been uploaded


==== Log checksum 50AB536E7756EF85767574AEA16A5F3A06FCA52A078384B9586A1D42FF4D1506 ====

[CUETools log; Date: 24.11.2018 1:28:10; Version: 2.1.4]
[CTDB TOCID: eTLlk_Cr8Ers8d1kJ3mhDXIwYSg-] found.
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (26/26) Accurately ripped
2 | (26/26) Accurately ripped
3 | (26/26) Accurately ripped
4 | (26/26) Accurately ripped
5 | (26/26) Accurately ripped
6 | (26/26) Accurately ripped
7 | (26/26) Accurately ripped
8 | (26/26) Accurately ripped
9 | (26/26) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 0018d360-00b05f03-720f7109] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [7338d2ec|007148cb] (08+09/43) Accurately ripped
02 [b3bc81e2|ad8c7b06] (08+09/43) Accurately ripped
03 [7c8cca9c|cc9e067e] (08+09/43) Accurately ripped
04 [9f7f6a4e|b75bae81] (08+09/43) Accurately ripped
05 [2ba6de5d|526695a0] (08+09/43) Accurately ripped
06 [db3e42d3|ff584a4e] (08+09/43) Accurately ripped
07 [4f86c294|2353b29f] (08+09/43) Accurately ripped
08 [8ee68b83|0532843a] (08+09/43) Accurately ripped
09 [a251db01|72bff6ca] (07+09/42) Accurately ripped
Offsetted by 11:
01 [aaf43f9f] (09/43) Accurately ripped
02 [4ffc671e] (09/43) Accurately ripped
03 [0129f323] (09/43) Accurately ripped
04 [b1a5dd15] (09/43) Accurately ripped
05 [008e59d4] (09/43) Accurately ripped
06 [7c3702c7] (09/43) Accurately ripped
07 [e2797d4e] (09/43) Accurately ripped
08 [6ff190c3] (09/43) Accurately ripped
09 [c653e9a3] (09/42) Accurately ripped

Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 98,4 [02F347C9] [7CB37BFE] CRC32
01 90,0 [FC74C68A] [FC72F617]
02 31,2 [89BB365D] [C70054CA]
03 87,0 [107C85F4] [20D10380]
04 98,4 [D34AEF1C] [F9A70BCA]
05 67,8 [54C1DA16] [9CDC2CF8]
06 87,2 [95DBFE90] [A7AA5701]
07 58,9 [E091098A] [FDD60DE9]
08 92,8 [97081DC0] [0F5012CE]
09 91,4 [2C02283C] [7A02BF70]

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2018-11-24 01:26:00

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Angela Hewitt / Schumann. Piano Sonata No.1, Humoreske
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR14 -0.91 dB -20.88 dB 13:52 01-Piano Sonata No.1 in F sharp minor Op.11 - I. Introduzione: Un poco adagio - Allegro vivace
DR15 -10.11 dB -32.01 dB 4:31 02-Piano Sonata No.1 in F sharp minor Op.11 - II. Aria
DR13 -1.20 dB -20.30 dB 5:27 03-Piano Sonata No.1 in F sharp minor Op.11 - III. Scherzo e intermezzo: Allegrissimo - Lento
DR15 -0.14 dB -20.23 dB 13:06 04-Piano Sonata No.1 in F sharp minor Op.11 - IV. Allegro un poco maestoso
DR15 -3.37 dB -23.39 dB 5:44 05-Humoreske in B flat major Op.20 - I. Einfach - Sehr rasch und leicht - Wie im Anfang
DR14 -1.19 dB -21.35 dB 5:24 06-Humoreske in B flat major Op.20 - II. Hastig - Nach und nach immer lebhafter und starker - Adagio
DR13 -4.59 dB -24.50 dB 4:34 07-Humoreske in B flat major Op.20 - III. Einfach und zart - Intermezzo
DR13 -0.65 dB -20.64 dB 6:32 08-Humoreske in B flat major Op.20 - IV. Innig - Sehr lebhaft - Mit einigem pomp
DR15 -0.78 dB -22.22 dB 6:42 09-Humoreske in B flat major Op.20 - V. Zum beschluss
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 9
Official DR value: DR14

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 379 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================