MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

CD REVIEW



Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger



Buy through MusicWeb from £13.99 postage paid.
You may prefer to pay by Sterling cheque or Euro notes to avoid PayPal. Contact for details

MusicWeb Purchase button

 

A Bridge To Bach
Orlando GIBBONS (1583-1625)
Lord of Salisbury Pavane and Galliard [4:33]
Jan Pieterszoon SWEELINCK (1562-1621)
Mein Junges Leben Hat Ein End [6:45]
More Palatino [3:30]
Fantasia (G Dorian) [7:35]
Unter der Linden Grüne [4:19]
William TISDALL
Pavana Chromatica (Mrs. Katherin Tregian's Paven) [6:27]
Thomas TOMKINS (1572-1656)
A Sad Pavane for These Distracted Times (1647) [5:18]
Pavane (1650) [2:44]
Voluntary (1647) [2:36]
Johann FROBERGER (1616-1667)
Ricercare VI [3:03]
Ricercare XIII  [3:47]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Fuga Op. 131 (1826) [6:45]
Giles FARNABY (c.1563-1640)
Loth to Depart [4:11]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Sinfonia in F Minor [3:43]
Andrew Rangell (piano)
rec. Gardner Museum, Boston, June 2006
BRIDGE 9216 [65:23]

 


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

 

 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.