Angela Hewitt turns her attention to the piano music of Emmanuel Chabrier. Chabrier was a sensitive soul, prone to weep on hearing a single chord of Wagner, yet he cultivated a gaiety and sense of joy that is clearly heard in his music. Chabrier’s most important works are for the piano. The ten contrasting and evocative Pièces pittoresques form the centrepiece of this recording, and were described by Poulenc as being “as important for French music as the preludes of Debussy”. The remaining works are charming and varied character pieces. All are played with style and affection by Angela Hewitt, who with her renowned warmth and communicative flair makes a very special case for this music.

Angela Hewitt has been much praised in her earlier recordings of Beethoven’s piano sonatas - displaying ‘exquisite taste’ - and now turns her ‘uncluttered clarity of thought and inspired structural pacing’ to four more works spanning the composer’s career. As ever, Angela’s accompanying notes provide fascinating insights into both the music and her performances.

Angela Hewitt presents a fourth volume in her acclaimed series of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, which has delighted her fans worldwide. The little-known Sonata in B flat major, Op 22, the last of Beethoven’s ‘early’ sonatas, is recorded alongside Op 31 No 3 (sometimes known as ‘La chasse’, or ‘The Hunt’, because of its tumultuous Presto con fuoco finale). The album is concluded with Op 101, of which the journalist for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in Leipzig wrote: ‘Truly, here in his 101st composition admiration and renewed respect take hold of us, when we wander along strange, never trodden paths with the great painter of the soul’, going on to enthuse about the most beautiful colours and pictures in Beethoven’s new Piano Sonata.

Angela Hewitt’s voyage of discovery through Mozart’s piano sonatas is proving a joy, the works sounding newly minted in vital, alert accounts which respect their scale and sensibility while revealing influences of Mozart’s orchestral and concerto writing of the period.

Romance and Counterpoint is the latest instalment in Alexander Shelley's multi-year and multi-disc exploration of the music – and, through the music, the lives – of Clara, Robert, and Johannes. Their creative output reflects not only their individual brilliance and characters, but also the role of the creative artist in their time and across the centuries. Pianists Angela Hewitt and Stewart Goodyear, and violinist Yosuke Kawasaki, join Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in this concluding homage.

Both the sonatas recorded here are recent additions to Angela Hewitt’s repertoire, and the results amply justify the patience and wisdom of her approach. A fitting end to a magnificent Beethoven sonata cycle.

Canadian Baroque keyboard specialist par excellence Angela Hewitt turns to the rich seam of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas. The prolific Italian composer wrote over 555 sonatas in his lifetime. For this collection, Hewitt performs sixteen of the composer's finest sonatas, including the ever-popular Sonata in E Major, Kk380.

Fans of Angela Hewitt will be delighted to find her in chamber mode, accompanying Andrea Oliva (described as ‘one of the best flutists of his generation, a shining star in the world of the flute’ by Sir James Galway) in a programme of J S Bach’s flute sonatas (including one by his most famous and talented son, CPE). Of unfailingly remarkable quality, all these works exploit the full potential of an instrument which was only just coming into its own when they were written. Oliva’s lyricism and agility coupled with Hewitt’s musicianship - not to mention her lifelong rapport with Bach’s music - make this an album to treasure.

‘Brilliant, well-sounding, expressive and always new’ was the verdict of Bach’s first biographer on the six Partitas, a description which applies equally to Angela Hewitt’s wonderful new recording of what Bach designated his ‘Opus 1’. Angela describes a lifetime of living with Bach’s music as ‘a great gift and a lifelong adventure’; an adventure in which we are fortunate to have such an authoritative companion and guide.

Angela Hewitt’s new album is clearly destined to become a favourite. Some of the best-known musical declarations of love across the centuries, heard in transcriptions by some of the great pianists (including Angela herself); this is simply exquisite and not to be missed.