In this double album from Steinway & Sons, Andrew Rangell brilliantly explores repertoire that lived close to Chopin's heart.

In Chopin's varied output, the mazurka is the most abundantly represented genre, in which Chopin permitted himself an astonishing range of expression. He took this national dance, developed it, enlarged it and hung upon it his choicest melodies, his most piquant harmonies. His Mazurkas are epigrammatie, fluctuating, bizarre, tender, precise and vertiginous and while other composers have written in this dance form, none has made the same mark as Chopin. In this release, Andrew Rangell brilliantly explores the repertoire that lived so close to Chopin's heart.

“Rangell's accounts of these marvelous Chopin works are rather individual and full of subtle touches...he is very subtle and thoughtful in his accounts of just about every mazurka on the two discs.” 

Classical.net

“Rangell's clean approach puts the focus on the daring harmonic turns in these mazurkas, but even more so on the ornamentation, which is carefully traced out.” 

AllMusic Guide

ALBUM CREDITS

Chopin: Complete Mazurkas / Andrew Rangell • STNS 30071

Release Date: 11/11/2016

Recorded April 2000, July 2001 and October 2002 at Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts.

Executive Producer: Jon Feidner

Producer: Andrew Rangell

Engineer: Thomas Stephenson

Remaster: Brad Michel

Editor: Matthew Packwood

Piano Technician: Anthony McKenna

Production Assistant: Robert Hillinck

Design: Cover to Cover Design, Anilda Carrasquillo

Cover Painting: Yehan Wang, City Surface:g1010, 2012

About the Artist

One of our most eloquent and probing interpreters of the major keyboard works of Bach and Beethoven, pianist Andrew Rangell is also acclaimed for a wide variety of recordings, which range from the music of Sweelinck, Farnaby, and Gibbons to Nielsen, Ives, Enescu, Bartók, Janáček, Schoenberg, Christian Wolff, and many others. Mr. Rangell’s Bach recordings embrace the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas, the French suites, the Art of Fugue, the Well-tempered Clavier (Bk. 1), the B minor French Overture, Italian Concerto, and smaller works.  

 Rangell made his New York debut as winner of the Malraux Award of the Concert Artists’ Guild, and has since performed and lectured throughout the United States, and in Europe, Israel, and China. He has also taught on the faculties of Dartmouth, Middlebury, and Tufts University. In the 1980s, already recognized as a distinctive recitalist and collaborative artist, Mr. Rangell gained national attention — and the award of an Avery Fisher Career Grant — for his vivid traversals of the complete Beethoven sonata–cycle in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Rochester, Denver, and other US cities. A hand injury sustained in 1991 forced Mr. Rangell to gradually alter the trajectory of his career, and eventually to place his highest priority on recording. In recent years he has created several DVDs for children — integrating his special talents as author, illustrator, narrator, and pianist.

About Steinway & Sons label

The STEINWAY & SONS music label produces exceptional albums of solo piano music across all genres. The label — a division of STEINWAY & SONS, maker of the world’s finest pianos — is a perfect vessel for producing the finest quality recordings by some of the most talented pianists in the world.