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Pandemic had upside for pianist Angela Hewitt

ON STAGE What: Angela Hewitt Plays Bach Where: victoriasymphony.ca When: Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m. Note: The concert will be available online until Dec.
TC_56234_web_Angela-Hewitt-High-Res-5---credit-Bernd-Eberle.jpg
Pianist Angela Hewitt will perform online Thursday as part of the Victoria Symphony’s virtual season. BERND EBERLE

ON STAGE

What: Angela Hewitt Plays Bach
Where: victoriasymphony.ca
When: Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m.
Note: The concert will be available online until Dec. 11

When the lockdown brought about by COVID-19 came into effect, pianist Angela Hewitt took to Twitter as a way of connecting with her fans.

The Ottawa native hadn’t done much with social media in the past, but she started to explore the possibilities in March, tweeting every day from her flat in London, England, where she was stationed through the lockdown. Hewitt’s tweets would feature snippets of pieces she considered quite easy to learn, in hopes of insipring her followers to play along. Concerts were not happening for her or any other musician, so Hewitt maintained her Twitter pace until June 1, when the a sense of normalcy returned.

The dialogue with fans opened a line of communication that never would have happened otherwise, given her busy appearance schedule. she said.

“Every day I put something out, and it really connected with people. There were people looking forward to it in Canada when they woke up, and those looking forward to it in New Zealand and Australia when they went bed. It tripled my audience online, but I didn’t do it for that — it just happened. It was a way to connect with people, and give them something to look forward to.”

A phased return to in-person performance has begun, so Hewitt has tweeted less of late. But she is no less active. She was in Victoria last month for a taping with the Victoria Symphony — the first time since 1994, Hewitt said — that will be available for free beginning Thursday at 7:30 p.m. through the Victoria Symphony’s website. Though the musicians were stationed at a safe distance from each other for Angela Hewitt Plays Bach, the pianist said it worked well.

“Everyone was pulling their weight. I think we have something special.”

The concert, part of the Victoria Symphony’s virtual season, is one of the few on Hewitt’s appearance schedule that was not outright canceled, even though it was disappointing an in-person audience was not there to see her perform live. Her mindset hasn’t changed, however. Hewitt said she’s up to speed with new protocols surrounding live performance in the COVID-19 era, having done a mixture of in-person and online performance during the last three months, including a recital in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre.

“Whether you get up and play with an audience or without an audience, it has to be just as good. I’ve had a lot of practice at that.”

Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in D Minor — which she first started playing as a teenager — was on the program with the Victoria Symphony, and Hewitt was more than satisfied with the results. “It is a very special piece for me,” Hewitt said. “I wouldn’t agree to record it with just any old band.”

Her cycle of cycle of the major keyboard works of Bach made her a classical music star in 1994, and among the most acclaimed recitalists of the past half-century, a perch from which she not yet descended. She is both an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and a Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest civilian honour in the country, and is closely identified with Fazioli Pianos of Italy.

Hewitt made international news in February when her beloved Fazioli, purchased from the Fazioli factory in Sacile, Italy, was rendered useless following a mishap in Berlin. The movers hired to load the $300,000 instrument out of the studio and into a truck headed for her other home in Umbria, Italy, dropped it, resulting in extensive damage to the 1,200-pound piano’s iron frame.

She never traveled far with the hand-built concert grand (it was used primarily for recordings in Germany and Finland, Hewitt said) but its loss was incalculable. The piano was eventually replaced in July, following a trip to the Fazioli factory, and had several custom adjustments made to it, before Hewitt could claim it as her own. She has since used it on a recording, and claims only she can tell the difference in tone between this one and her former “best friend.”

For her performance with the Victoria Symphony last month, the very same model of Fazioli was shipped to the University’s Farquhar Auditorium by Showcase Pianos in Vancouver. Hewitt deals with regional Fazioli dealers when she is on the road, and Showcase Pianos has been her go-to for years whenever she needs a loaner when she performs on Vancouver Island.

“I will play other pianos,” she said, “but I’m always happiest when I have a really nice Fazioli to play.”

Hewitt is happy to be performing in any capacity at the moment. Though her summer schedule was wiped clean by COVID-19, she has been impressed by what the music community as a whole has been able to accomplish in these unprecedented times.

“People are really thirsting for live artistic experiences, to be back in the [performance] hall. I don’t envy governments which have to make these decisions, because I think they are very difficult. But we’re grateful, all of us who are performing at the moment, even if there’s nobody in the hall. We’re grateful to have the opportunity to do something.”

mdevlin@timescolonist.com