Two pianists reside in Andrew Rangell’s body. One plays 20th-century music with great vitality and imagination. The other rarely gets through a classical work without leaving behind a dumpster of mannerisms in its wake. Both Rangells trade seats throughout a recital that illuminates as much as it infuriates. Has Mozart’s wonderful C major sonata ever sounded this self-aware, agogically unmusical, and utterly lacking in vocal grace? I doubt it. Rangell’s Haydn, I wager, also will rankle purists. Like Glenn Gould, Rangell brings a bracing vehemence to the E-flat sonata’s first movement, yet minus the older pianist’s firmly grounded rhythmic sense. Rangell picks apart the menuet finale like a vulture munching on a carcass, replete with hiccuping tenutos on downbeats that grow progressively annoying. In Rangell’s hands the Chopin E-flat minor Polonaise isn’t so much perverse as it is confused. Rangell spends much of his time poking around for left-hand chords to accent, melodic lines to shape against their natural melodic flow, or rhythmic patterns to worry over. As a result, the basic Polonaise rhythm and pianistic textures are skewed.
However, Rangell’s improvisatory rubatos and quests for inner voices totally convince in the Waltzes, with a varied legato touch achieved with virtually no sustain pedal. Curiously, he plays the second quarter-note in measures 53 and 61 (as well as in similar spots) as a dotted-quarter: is that intentional or a misreading? Rangell lavishes alluring tonal effects upon Christian Wolff’s Peruvian Holiday, a composition deconstructed from the Beatles’ “Eight Days A Week” yet sounding more like updated–and very attractive–Janácek. Fartein Valen’s bleaker, earnestly crafted Variations also benefit from Rangell’s sympathetic, flexible treatment of an idiom that too often elicits dry, colorless interpretations. I also enjoyed Rangell’s more deliberate, weightier, and ultimately sexier view of Stravinsky’s Tango than the norm. In all, an unusual and compelling program served up by the piano world’s answer to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
