There’s
something of a Glenn Gould feel to this recital. He admired
the English Virginalists and Sweelinck, to say nothing of Bach,
though here the resemblance ends. Gould’s clarity and contentious
articulation differ radically from Andrew Rangell no-holds-barred
romanticist inflexions and dare devilry in this repertoire.
His conception is entirely pianistic and he revels in the sheer
pomp of his Steinway and the myriad voicings and colours he
can evoke.
Gibbons’s
Lord of Salisbury Pavane and Galliard is a ceaseless play of colour and burnish, kaleidoscopically
fascinating and intensely rich. Then too he makes a powerful
point of the polyphony of Sweelinck’s Mein Junges
Leben Hat Ein End the
variations flowing with timbral variety and constantly shifting
weight. The questionable aspect of this approach, and it applies
throughout, is a thickening of textures and an extraneous romanticist
spirit which can mould the pieces too inflexibly to Rangell’s
will. So More Palatino
is robust and excitingly expressive and played with a sense
of almost plastic verve and he clearly relishes the voicings,
colour, metrics and false relations of Tisdall’s Pavana
Chromatica.
So we
find too that he really digs into the dotted rhythms of Sweelinck’s
Fantasia (G Dorian) and evokes its tenacious modernity with avid brilliance.
But when it’s necessary he brings gravity to the discourse –
try Tomkins’ remarkable essay A Sad Pavane for These
Distracted Times. He’s right to stress the stretto fugue
aspect of the same composer’s 1650 Pavane and equally
I think to play with such masculine vigour Sweelinck’s Unter
der Linden Grüne. His
playing of the Bach is of a piece with his performances throughout
the recital. For brief moments Bach sounds almost impressionist
and this workover sounds radical enough for any recitalist.
Rangell’s
playing is intensely engaging but might prove equally enraging.
I think it’s best to put historicist objections, which will
be overwhelming, to one side and to take the disc on Rangell’s
own terms. Much here is like metal heated over flame - dangerous
and exciting – but sometimes a more malleable instrument is
called for.
Jonathan Woolf
The
BRIDGE Catalogue
for details
