Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Andrew Rangell :: Bach: 6 Partitas for Keyboard, BWV 825-830

Intimate, Rhapsodic, Interesting Bach-an Outstanding Artist

David Hildebrand | Denver, CO | 01/08/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Think you've heard Bach? Buy this disc and see how much more there is to explore.Andrew Rangell's playing is honest and exciting. All the partitas strike me as fresh. For example Rangell's gigue on partita #4 made Gould's sound hurried and childishly fast. I'd never felt that way before on that gigue. (I still think Gould's Allemande on partita #4 is beautiful. He's better when he slows it down, but listen to Rangell's approach. Original.)

Rangell's partita #1 rescued that partita from that one from Terminal Sweetness. Quite an accomplishment, and he's wise to go for that. (Making that piece Extra Pretty should, by now, warrant capital punishment; Rangell gives the hangman the slip.) The key is restraint on ornamentation; Rangell's ornamentation should be textbook for pianists out there-it's always purposeful and connected to the deeper motivations of the line and the overall piece.

Rangell can be an emphatic articulator--even pointillistic. In this he reminds me of jazz player Keith Jarrett a little, especially because the points are jazzy, suffused with a playful rhythm. (Unlike Rosalyn Tureck's points which are Cartesian-precise, or Gould's, which can have an "over-medicatedness" about them, if you see this overdrawn and "philosophical" point.) But then, usually on other tunes, he can relax that articulation and join forces with the legato (right word?) flow of the Romantics. Bring on the absinthe, I'm out of step with my age --that kind of thing. Partita #6 is a special treat. Somehow Rangell takes a very well known opening line and brings out notes I've never heard emphasized. Then, he turns those inside out and brings yet another facet of the melody out. This is not capricious play with the rhythm-it's deliberate, consistent, and inspired."