♪ >> Valerie: Welcome to Canada Files.

I'm Valerie Pringle.

My guest today is Angela Hewitt, one of the world's leading concert pianists.

And foremost interpreters of Bach.

The New York Times said she's one of those rare performers who seems to get something in their heads and hearts and find it at their fingertips instantaneously.

Angela was a child prodigy, taught by her parents.

Who has exceeded her potential.

She's had a 40-year career in which she still plays 80 concerts a year.

She has her own annual festival in Italy.

And has made 50 recordings.

>> Valerie: Angela Hewitt, hello.

>> Angela: Hello, Valerie.

>> You've been described as one of the busiest pianists on earth What drives that relentless schedule?

>> I love performing and playing.

I love playing lots of different repertoire.

I've done it all my life.

And I just love being out there, being on stage.

I love sharing the music with people.

Being in different cultures and places.

But it's that act of sharing something of great beauty that really - and also I like to fill my days.

I like to be busy.

I've always been that way.

It gives me something to get up for in the morning.

You know?

So I'm not stopping.

I'm going on.

>> But what is life like?

Because I'm thinking: rehearsal, repertoire.

But the travel, hotels, gowns, hair and makeup.

Then meals and, you know, all that.

And then create magic.

>>The glamour, the glamour, as we say.

And yes, people don't often think of the other side.

And if I may say, classical musicians are sort of just expected to get themselves around the world.

We don't have limousines coming to the door to pick us up and take us to the airport.

Very rarely, in some places, yes.

But it's not always like that.

I can remember trying to get to my debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on a very snowy February day, minus 20.

And you know they can't deal with snow there, like we Canadians can.

I went for a rehearsal in the afternoon then I couldn't get back to my hotel which was around by Carnegie Hall--no taxis.

I had to get on a bus, then get on the subway.

Then I had to get across to Columbus Circle and then walk and I got to my hotel.

I was so frozen I got into a hot bath to thaw out.

I made my meal.

I got ready.

I phoned some friends, said can you take me there?

No.

We can't move the car.

I got it.

So I got my suitcase.

I walked over to the subway.

I was in such a panic I went the wrong way.

I got an express train going south instead of north.

Anyway I finally got up there and I got a taxi for the last three blocks.

I arrived at three minutes before the recital.

I had to scramble into my gown and walked out on stage looking perfectly calm and played.

In a freezing cold Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Yeah.

So things like that.

That's a particularly good story.

But yeah.

And the gowns.

Of course male pianists, musicians-- now they're more stylish.

But on the whole, don't have the problem of-- choosing a proper gown and carrying all those around.

The shoes and jewelry and as you say, the hair and all of that.

You have to be very self-sufficient and resourceful.

I book all my own travel.

Yeah.

>> And strong.

Like, you really have to be an athlete.

>> Tough.

You have to be tough.

Tough physically, but also mentally and emotionally.

Yes.

>> Sounds great.

>> Well, I think, you know, there's so many pianists, especially the young generation now.

I mean, what my generation perhaps did at age 16, they now do it at like 12-- You know, it's unbelievable.

But it takes much more than just being able to play the notes to make a career as a concert pianist.

You have to have the personality that I think also likes to interact with people.

Yes, that you enjoy it.

That you can take all of these other things then still get up and perform.

>> Tell me about your love of Bach.

>> Well, I grew up here in Ottawa in a very musical household.

My father was organist and choir master at Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa for almost 50 years.

He had come from England.

He was named assistant at Westminster Abbey in 1931 but decided to come to Canada instead.

My mother met him in 1945.

She went to take organ lessons.

She was a high school teacher here.

They had an organ in the auditorium.

So I came along later.

So I grew up in a house listening to wonderful music played wonderfully well.

They were both beautiful musicians.

They started me off.

Of course I heard my father play all the great organ works of Bach.

So that was the best introduction I could have.

But they were very particular also, when I started piano, about creating a nice sound.

About all the things like phrasing and articulation and making it sound musical.

I sang and played the violin and the recorder.

I did classical ballet from the age of three for 20 years.

All things that helped, not just with my interpretation of Bach but with all the other composers.

So it was a great house to grow up in.

Also they understood what it was to be a musician.

They didn't, you know, push me in any horrible way.

Although if I may say one funny story.

I had one invitation at the age of four.

Because I had just passed my grade 1 Royal Conservatory exam.

It got on the wires in those days.

It made it to Hollywood!

We got this letter from the Lawrence Welk show.

Would I appear on the Lawrence Welkshow in Hollywood.

My parents said no because they didn't think it was good for a four-year-old to have-- what parent these days would say no to that, you know?

But I have the letters still.

We have a tape of me playing all my grade 1 pieces at age four and singing and it's very funny.

My father was a perfectionist so I had to play it until it was perfect, you know.

At one stage, you hear him saying, "Once more please".

Then my mother said, "Godfrey, they're only children" But I learned very early on what it was to play something perfectly and to get it right.

>> Then you headed off to the Royal Conservatory in Toronto.

Studied there, mostly.

...I read that it wasn't until you were 16 that you were introduced to the Goldberg Variations .

It's called the most serious and ambitious work for keyboard.

So this was something worth waiting for and very special.

>>The ripe old age of 16, yeah.

It was written actually, we think, for a harpsichordist.

Goldberg who was studying with Bach who was 15-16 at the time.

There was a competition in Washington in 1975 announced.

With the Goldberg as a test piece and I applied.

I was only 16 when I applied.

I performed it for the first time here at the cathedral in Ottawa.

But I was 17 by the time the competition came along.

I won a top prize, 2nd prize.

It was all done behind a curtain.

The judges had no idea who was playing--age, gender, nothing.

A 32-year-old Polish lady won.

I was two tenths of a point behind.

But yeah...it's the piece that has followed me the most throughout my career-- changed and developed with me.

Which is a wonderful thing.

My teacher gave it to me at that age because he knew I had already done a lot of Bach.

A lot of kids now can play the Goldberg but it's the understanding of the style.

The understanding of what it means to play Bach-- of the musical language.

There's much more to it than just playing the notes.

>>Interesting.

You know,you've talked about this many times.

One of the great famous interpreters of Bach is another Canadian, Glenn Gould.

I love the story about you seeing him on television and saying, "Who is this kook?"

Because ...his nose practically on the keyboard.

>> When I was a kid, we remember those black-and-white programs he did on a Sunday night on CBC TV .

I'd see this guy, you know, playing like this.

We got his LPs and listened.

But I always knew even from the youngest age it was somehow more Glen Gould, than what I had imagined for Bach.

But I listened and it was certainly a level to aspire to.

And a perfection.

But I never set out to imitate him.

I had my own ideas.

>> You know you talked about taking dance, etc., as a child.

Very influenced by dancing and movement.

All the arts coming together.

>> I sing and dance the whole time.

I sing along with them to get the phrasing.

I conduct them for the rhythm and breathing.

I show them the p olonaise which I dance with the steps, the mazurka, the waltz.

Yeah.

All of that...

I think it's so necessary for any instrumentalist, really, to be able to sing and dance.

Because that's the essence of music.

>> What do you think is your greatest talent?

>> Oh mamma mia.

Well, I would say...

I've learned it over the years-- communicating with my audience.

Bringing people together.

The audience that I have who comes from all over the world.

They form friendships and it's like a family.

You know, I've learned how to do that.

But it's a very important part of what I do.

>> You have a remarkable ability to memorize.

>> Oh, I've worked at it.

Yeah.

>> What's the longest piece that you've memorized?

>> Well, the Goldberg with the repeats is an hour and 20 minutes.

I mean, I've memorized all 32 Beethoven sonatas, which somebody just put in a playlist in Spotify.

Which is something like 24 hrs of music.

I don't know.

All the complete Bach is even more--it's 12 recitals.

Which I'll memorize the whole stuff.

I've just memorized all 18 Mozart sonatas.

...Pianists and singers, I suppose, because when they do opera, you know, they have to memorize the words of music.

But pianists were memorizing, not just one line like a violinist would, but up to four or five lines at once.

It was really the fault of Clara Schumann, the wife of Robert Schumann, and Liszt, the romantic virtuoso pianist.

They started playing from memory because before that, nobody did.

They were actually considered very arrogant to play from memory.

Then others thought we'd better too to keep up with them.

So pianists have inherited this.

Now there's a tendency because you can use the iPad and turn the pages with a foot pedal.

>> So nobody's having to.... >> ... to turn, which is a great invention.

I do use it for chamber music.

And when I play something incredibly complicated or new.

I still try to play from memory as much as possible because it's a muscle.

It's something that we need to keep going.

I worry about young kids now.

They don't have to memorize because it's all on their phone.

They don't have to memorize phone numbers.

They don't memorize poetry like we used to.

I really think especially in those young years, you've got to develop that.

But when you're older it becomes a completely different way of memorizing, much more consciously--we know that.

But I force myself to do it.

Even though it takes me longer it's in a way more secure.

Because I've had to think about it so much more.

>> I guess when you've got the whole piece in your brain.

it's not just pages-- you see it.

>> You play differently because you have that arc from beginning to end-- it's there inside you.

And you have that security.

Haha.

Security.

Because it can always go in a flash.

>> And it has.

I'm sure it has.

Ahhh!

>>Yeah.

You know, on occasion.

I mean, what you must not do is walk out on stage and say I'm going to go wrong.

No.

Because it's very psychological.

You must go out saying I'm going to sing every note.

I know it.

I'm going to concentrate.

You're not going to let anybody's coughing disturb you.

Or whatever happens-- everybody's phone going off.

You can't let that disturb you.

So it's concentration-- you work at that.

...It's really I think when you have a piece inside you like the Goldberg that can take 1 hr and 20 mins to play, it's wonderful to have that freedom then.

That security which then gives you the freedom to express everything you want to say.

>> So you can concentrate but I was hearing about one time.

What was it?

A beetle?

>>Oh.

Walking up my bare arm.

I was playing in the Chateau de Chillon in Switzerland on Lake Geneva and playing a complicated Bach fugue.

This beetle was walking slowly up my arm.

I couldn't move because, you know, and it got here.

Terrible.

Anyway it flew away once it was up here.

But I thought I would die.

Yeah.

That's just one example.

>>...but that must be the ultimate test.

>> (Laughter) One of.

>> Or a fly landing on your nose.

>> Yeah or on the keys.

They can land on the keys too.

Yes, many different things can happen.

>> You feel that music really has a power to heal.

>> Yes, definitely.

I get so many emails.

Letters, comments from people all throughout the years.

People who've gone through a bereavement and listening to my recordings helps them.

People who listen to a recording and write me saying, I want that track, Schumann Widmung, at my funeral.

People waiting for a baby to be delivered and it's not coming.

So they've played my Well-Tempered Clavier for several days in the hospital in the labour room.

Then when the baby finally comes they name it Sebastian after Johann Sebastian Bach.

And people who have lost their jobs.

I remember one man in Canada who lost his job at CBC .

Just couldn't listen to music for many, many years.

Then heard me on the radio and that just got him back into it.

That was very moving.

>> You played a concert on the day of your mother's death.

>> Oh I did.

>> Was that awful or comforting or ... >> I told the hospital--don't, it doesn't make any difference.

I knew she was going.

I said I've got this huge recital in London's Royal Festival Hall for 2,300 people in the afternoon.

I went to a hotel to get a good sleep.

Then they had a substitute doctor who didn't look at the chart and phoned my number.

Although I didn't answer the call, I knew what it was.

But I still played with the support of friends.

Well...I thought maybe she wanted to go then so she'd hear the concert.

I played at a very close friend's funeral the other day in Italy.

Well, you know, music somehow on those occasions helps so much so I think if we can find the strength inside us to play.

it's the best thing to do.

>> You did that in COVID.

Set up a camera on your piano and played.

I mean, I'm sure as much for you as for all the people you felt who needed to hear.

>> Exactly.

I was sitting alone at home in my one-bedroom flat in London with just the garden outside at least.

But I was one of the first to sort of put my phone just at the end of the keyboard; I didn't show my face.

I didn't feel it was the moment to show one's face.

Just my hands and the reflection in my Fazioli.

In a different sweater every day, or in my pajamas and otherwise.

And played pieces that amateurs or students could also play.

Nothing too complicated.

For two minutes and 20 seconds.

Which was all I could get on Twitter.

It was company for me because I'd get comments from people in Vancouver or San Francisco.

Who would wake up to it and people in New Zealand and Australia going to bed and saying, "What's Angela playing for us this morning, tonight?"

So it was really comfort and company for me too.

>> Oh, it must have been lovely.

>> Kept you going.

To keep that connection.

>> It did keep me going.

>> You talked about my Fazioli.

Have to talk about your piano.

What is that relationship?

>>I have several Faziolis, I must say.

I love the Fazioli pianos because they're very creative.

They have a wide range of sound.

Really a lot of colour, vibrations and harmonics there.

Also quite an easy piano to play.

I don't feel that I'm putting in any energy that I don't need.

You know, on some pianos you have to just physically put in more power.

If you're pressing 6 hours a day, you get sore shoulders and arms.

It's not good.

They say it's like driving a Ferrari.

I've never driven a Ferrari but I can imagine it's a pretty smooth ride.

So I now have--well, everybody perhaps knows the story of my... >> It's a famous story.

If they don't know it, tell this story.

And try not to cry.

>> It was in January 2020 and I was recording a Beethoven CD in a church in Berlin.

We had finished and I said they could move it.

Take it back to my house in Italy.

I was in the control room down the hall with my producer.

They came in and said they dropped the thing.

>> Shattered it!

>> I hadn't been there when it happened, thank goodness.

I don't have that in my visual memory.

But it was a big enough shock.

To make a long story short, yes, it was kaput .

It was assessed.

So Mr Fazioli had five new ones.

Then came lockdown so I couldn't go anywhere till July.

My first trip was to the Fazioli factory near Venice to choose a new one.

Of course the story went all over the wires.

That was a story in how the media works.

I mean, it was unbelievable!

I put a little post on Facebook and boom, within 24 hours it was in the New York Times , Washington Post, People Magazine, USA Today, DIVA.

CNN wanted an interview.

I said no--I didn't want to.

But that was a story in how media works.

So I chose a new one at the end of July and the story has a happy ending.

I have a wonderful new one that now sits in my house in Italy and which travels for recordings only.

I would be broke if it went around the world with me.

But I have another one too here in Ottawa that I play when I perform here at the National Arts Centre.

Or in other places nearby.

>> But it's just a sympatico .

>> It's my best friend.

It's just wonderful as I did the other night at the National Arts Centre to get up and play an instrument that's my own.

To feel at one with it and to know that it's going to respond.

...Violinists can go all over the world with their ...violin.

For pianists, it's much harder because of the instrument.

But still when I'm able to play it for recordings, I make sure I have my own-- it's a great feeling.

>> Tell me about Trasimeno.

>> My music festival in Umbria.

I never expected to have a house or anything in Italy.

But in 2002, I purchased a piece of land, sort of on a whim.

My agent at the time was fixing up a property in Umbria.

I bought a piece of land with planning permission in place for a house.

To make a very long but happy story short, I built a house-- or people built a house for me in Umbria on the fourth largest lake in Italy.

Lake Trasimeno, between Florence and Rome.

Built a house for me in 14 months.

Then I saw this incredible castle-- Castle of the Knights of Malta.

Around the hill, 15th century courtyard with the most stunning acoustic.

I walked in there and I thought, "Wow, okay I have to do a festival here."

And it's five minutes from my house.

So I started the festival in 2005.

That's grown.

We use many more venues now.

Beautiful churches and oratorios in Palazzi, Peruggia, Assisi and different places.

People come from all around the world.

So now in 2024 we're in our 19th year.

I never expected to have a home in Italy but it's really opened up my life.

When you're in Italy you feel a bit different person.

You can talk with your hands and you become more expressive.

You become more enthusiastic about food and life in general.

So I'm very happy to have had, and have , that in my life.

>> Do you worry that classical music is dying?

You know, people aren't going to church.

It just isn't exposed - this younger generation is... >> It's different.

I mean, you hinted there that people don't go to church anymore.

Which is where many people of my generation were introduced to music.

That was where they sang in choirs.

And that's gone, really, more or less.

But I think we just have to go about it in a different way and educate the young.

Of course, we have to put instruments in their hands.

That's why I'm an ambassador for the OrKidstra project here in Ottawa.

Which is a bit based on the El Sistema project.

Giving kids especially dis- advantaged kids, free music lessons, giving them instruments, making them play.

Having them play in an orchestra, sing in a choir, it's a wonderful initiative.

It's not to go on to be professional musicians, although some will.

But it's to give them a feeling of community.

Of doing something with other kids that makes them happy.

It's a home away from home because many come from abusive homes.

So ...and it develops their skills for other things in life.

That's the thing about music--what so many politicians don't see.

It's the first thing that goes in any budget.

The arts but it's our basic life force--to create.

>> And universal language.

>> I can go and play in any country in the world.

And I do, you know, represent my country too also.

...I've always been very strong about that.

That governments really need to see the arts as an ambassador and as identifying their country.

>> In a way you build your brain and fill your soul.

>> Memory, discipline and all the things that we've already talked about.

But yes, soul.

And just an appreciation of beauty.

Beauty as a concept.

Beauty in life.

Recognizing, striving for and expressing beauty.

That's something which sometimes gets a bit lost now.

>> What does being Canadian mean to you?

>>It's a great thing to be Canadian.

I think we're extremely lucky and we forget that sometimes.

I mean, I don't forget it but I think many people do.

When I mention around the world to taxi drivers, to builders in my house in London.

They come in from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Brazil and I say I'm Canadian.

They go, "What are you doing here?

Why aren't you in Canada?"

I say well, I'm still there a lot.

But Canada, but from them is this image a wonderful, free, enterprising country.

And I really hope we can keep that.

Also as a pianist I'm very happy to be.

Not--I mean, my teacher was French.

So if anything my playing is more of the French school.

But you know, there's the Russian and American school- quite easily identifiable.

There's no Canadian school of piano playing except for Glen Gould.

We have wonderful pianists in Canada--wonderful.

But we each have our own style.

That's a great thing, I think.

So it gives you a freedom to be Canadian and...I love that.

You can strive for excellence but you can't be put in a box that is like--a straight-jacket.

Although I have three passports now.

I have also British through my father and an Irish through my grandmother, which is very handy for touring around.

The Canadian, of course, is still the most important.

>> Thank you so much.

>>Thank you, Valerie.

>> Lovely to talk to you.

>> It's been a pleasure.

>> We'll be back next week with another episode of Canada Files .

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