Angela Hewitt / Orchestra Da Camera Di Mantova MOZART Piano Concertos No 17 K453 - No 27 K595

Angela Hewitt turns to two of Mozart’s greatest and most popular concertos for her latest album. Together with her frequent collaborators, the Orchestra da Camera di Mantova and brilliant Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, she presents these works in performances which are both elegantly stylish and profoundly felt. This release is completed by a personal reflection on the music by Hewitt herself in the accompanying booklet.

'The sound is wonderfully clean and focused, with an ideal balance between Hewitt's customary Fazioli piano and the orchestra. … [K453 finale] Here Lintu starts the movement with light-footed grace, using minimal vibrato on the strings, Hewitt taking her cue with playing of elegance and buoyancy … The attention to musical contrast and stylistic integrity is similar throughout. Hewitt's own illuminating notes in the booklet are a bonus, making this a Mozart release to cherish' (The Daily Telegraph)

The success of her performances of K595 and the G major, K453, rests in part on Hewitt's feeling for Mozart's remarkable harmonic and tonal range in both works … Mozart gives us plenty more surprises … Hewitt relishes these, as if freshly exploring and delighting in them … These characteristics of intelligent delight in the music also mark Hewitt's performance of the G major Concerto … It is brilliantly done, and this is a brilliant performance all round' (International Record Review

Angela Hewitt / Orchestra Da Camera Di Mantova MOZART Piano Concertos No 6 K238 - No 8 K246 - No 9 K271

 A brilliant specialist in the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach, which she has recorded to great critical acclaim, Angela Hewitt proves herself equally attuned to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in this first installment of the complete piano concertos. While beginning with the Piano Concertos No. 6, No. 8, and No. 9 might be an unusual opening gambit, jumping ahead of the earliest and least compelling concertos, they are still youthful works and more than competent examples of Mozart's budding mastery. Indeed, the Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, "Jenamy" ("Jeunehomme"), is his "coming of age" work, though it shows only the beginnings of Mozart's mature concertante style and promises much greater things to come. Hewitt performs with Orchestra da Camera di Mantova, demonstrating her polished skills and exquisite taste in refined and robust strokes with full-sounding accompaniment. Even though she plays a modern piano and the group isn't a period ensemble, the playing is certainly informed by historical practice and is a delightful mixture of Classical balance, modern instrumental colors, and consummate musicianship. Hyperion's reproduction is first-class, so the sound is clean, fresh, and vibrant, with crisp details and credible presence. (Blair Sanderson)

'Judging from this first example, it's going to be a journey as revelatory as her exploration of all the major keyboard works of Bach. Hewitt is also a violinist and so brings elegant yet practical intuition to her direction; much of her keyboard articulation, for instance, imitates string-bowing. She is joined in this exciting new endeavour by the fleet-footed Orchestra Da Camera di Mantova, who share her attention to stylistic detail. It's going to be a thrilling ride' (The Observer)