On a rainy Sunday morning, with Norwegian bachelor farmers taking all Fort
Mason parking on the occasion of Norway Day, one would expect at least some
initial difficulties in getting into "Das Wohltemperierte Klavier." And
yet, as Angela Hewitt played the first few measures in the unexpectedly
"well-tempered" Cowell Theater, everything else -- rain, parking, the cry
of seagulls outside -- disappeared, and there was only the perfect world of
Bach.  (I don't know what made the difference in acoustics, but the theater
turned into a real recital hall today.)

While Bach is perfectly perfect, Hewitt -- thank goodness!  -- is not.
There may be Bach specialists who have more steely fingers, greater
consistency of tempo, more passion or discipline, but if there is anyone
with more palpable love for Bach, playing more *beautiful* music than
Hewitt, I haven't had the pleasure.

Performed in four segments over two days, the five-hour journey through
"the 48" ranges over a terrain as rich and varied as the 15 hours of the
"Ring." It is in honoring -- and realizing -- that variety where Hewitt's
strength is.  While she plays every single note so it's unmistakably
"Bach," the music those notes add up traverses what one expects from
Wagner, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and their respective "sound." There
may be some in the audience who are not happy with that; they miss the
experience of some wonderful music.

Well short of the excesses and idiosyncrasies of some "emotional Bach"
interpreters, Hewitt is exactly in the right place, keeping an equal
distance from the spirit of exercises "through all the tones and
semitones...  for the use and profit of young musicians anxious to learn as
well as for the amusement of those already skilled in this art." Hewitt's
"Klavier" is not about her or exercises or amusement; it is about providing
a great spritual and emotional experience.

Ruth Felt's San Francisco Performances is paying homage to Bach in this
anniversary year way out of proportion with the size of the organization.
Besides Hewitt, SFP also offered Edward Aldwell in the "Art of the Fugue"
and the "Goldberg Variations," and upcoming next week, there will be two
concerts by the young Australian violinist Benjamin Schmid, playing Bach's
solo violin works, along with the four Ysaye sonatas.

Part II of Hewitt's "Klavier" is scheduled for May 21, in the same format
as today's concert:  C major through F minor at 11 a.m., a two-hour lunch
break, then the other 12 pieces, followed by a post-concert discusssion
with the pianist and Michael Steinberg.

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