At the Reactions to the Record symposium at Stanford last year, I attended a talk and a performance by the pianist Andrew Rangell. He is an interesting guy and had a lot to say about his path into music and his career; both his playing style and his take on standard works are extremely individual. He played a Schoenberg suite and a Bach suite simultaneously - not really, but he interleaved the movements. He said he'd never do that in a "real" concert, and afterward everyone wanted to know why, because it was an extremely successful experiment. The two works spoke to and illuminated each other, unlike way too many pairings of older and newer music.
In any event, Vivien Schweitzer reviewed a CD of his in the Times this week. Read the review, and buy that CD - and maybe some of his Beethoven, or A Bridge to Bach, which I like very much. He records for Bridge Records, a small label with a great catalog of current and historical recordings.
Just in case anyone's curious or uncertain, the two suites were Bach's French Suite No. 1 and Schoenberg's Op. 25.
ReplyDeleteI bought the two CDs Rangell had on sale at the symposium; that'll tell you what I thought of his playing.
I just got an e-mail from ArkivMusic.com -- they're having a sale on Bridge Records CDs (among other things).
ReplyDeleteDavid, he must have practically sold out, because I bought three, and that didn't include any of his Bach.
ReplyDeleteOh, god, I did not need to know that about Arkiv, except that of course I have the same damn email from them.
Hi. Just found this post doing a search on Andrew Rangell. He's doing a free master class on Tuesday early evening at Stanford, so wanted to find out more about him to see if it's worth going to. Sounds like it might be worth checking out, based on your posts. Looks like he's playing some of the same repertoire (Shoenberg, Bach), but also Ravel, Gibbons, Ives. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOh, wow - is he also playing a concert? He's definitely worth hearing/seeing. I bet he is an interesting teacher.
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