Beatrice Rana
For Beatrice Rana, the long months of lockdown in Rome have presented the ideal opportunity to get to know a composer who has strangely eluded her. The exceptional pianist tells Claire Jackson about her new recording
The Italian pianist tells Claire Jackson why she feels the time is finally right to master the works of Chopin
Beatrice Rana is discussing the delicious moment when musician and composer truly connect; when the notes are not only technically secure, but there is a clear understanding between innovator and interpreter. Recently, she has been working closely on one composer’s work in particular, someone whose oeuvre has long been problematic for the Italian pianist.
But who is the mysterious challengesetter? Could it be Pierre Boulez, whose abstract piano sonatas out-fox the most dedicated keyboardist? Or Ronald Stevenson, whose hour-long singlemovement Passacaglia on DSCH requires a feat of endurance from its soloist.
Perhaps one of the lesser-known Classical composers, Dussek, Wölfl or Reicha, who all place their own particular demands on 21st-century pianists? No. It is, in fact, one of the pillars of piano music: Chopin.
‘My relationship with Chopin has been delicate,’ smiles Rana, ‘ I have always loved his music but I never felt truly confident playing his works – until now.’ The strict Italian lockdown was terrifying in many ways, but Rome-based Rana says that she ‘tried to enjoy what was left in life.’
For the 28-year-old, this was time with family, cooking, baking – and playing the piano purely for pleasure. ‘When you’re touring it is difficult to learn new pieces. I actually had time to explore repertoire that I hadn’t had the chance to study so deeply before,’ she says. Among those works were Chopin’s Etudes Op. 25, 12 exquisite pieces that are virtually universally loved.
Chopin’s Op. 10 (published in 1833) and Op. 25 (1837) are didactic keyboard works, intended to develop a pianist’s dexterity and demonstrate virtuosic prowess. They followed on from similar collections produced by Clementi, Cramer and Czerny. Although there are poetic moments in the previous studies, Chopin is often seen as elevating the etude to an art form in its own right, inspiring composers such as Liszt, Alkan, Lyapunov, Ligeti, Glass and Unsuk Chin. As mechanically difficult as they are melodically beautiful, Chopin’s etudes are a major fixture in many piano students’ lives.
Except, as it turns out, Rana’s. ‘When I was a child, my teacher [Benedetto Lupo] did not allow me to play Chopin,’ she reveals. ‘I started playing some Nocturnes – the type of pieces that everyone plays – and he said “No, you must wait”. When I was 18, he said I could now play Chopin but that I had to start with the 24 Preludes [Op 28]. They are actually far removed from the composer that we all know – they are dramatic and dark. In a way they are quite dry. I was shocked. This was not what I thought Chopin’s music was about. So then I had a long struggle with Chopin.’
Over the past few years, Rana has worked through those difficulties and is now on good terms with the composer whom she calls the ‘king of piano literature’. It was Chopin’s music that she turned to during the pandemic, finding particular solace in his expressive melodies and experimental harmonic colour. ‘I found this music so relevant for this time; we are always talking about social distancing just now and through Chopin I discovered a way to get close to people again,’ she says. ‘His music is heartbreaking. I wanted to make a recording to take a photo of this moment.’
So does Rana believe her teacher was correct to make her wait for Chopin? ‘Of course at the time I disagreed with his view, but now I understand what he meant. I am grateful that I waited as I can now discover the depths of Chopin’s music,’ she says. I have witnessed this pedagogical
approach applied to composers such as Brahms, and even Beethoven, but never to Chopin. There are no hard feelings between
Rana and her mentor – Lupo occasionally plays at Rana’s festival, Classiche FORME – and, listening to Rana’s assured reading of Op. 25, it is clear that in this case patience is a virtue. ‘There are many aspects to Chopin’s music,’ she explains. ‘On a superficial level it is pleasing to the ear and emotional. It appeals to so many people; you don’t need to have studied classical music. Much of it is beautiful – sugary even – but as you peel back the layers you find the
A brilliant talent: (left) Beatrice Rana performs Schumann’s Piano Concerto at the Royal Albert Hall during the 2017 BBC Proms; (right) off-stage in 2013; (below) Rana’s new Chopin recording
intellectualism. Opus 25 is really one big piece divided into 12 chapters. I wanted to present it as a continuous work. There was so much drama in Chopin’s life – it’s palpable in the arching structure and final trilogy of etudes.’
The obvious programming choice is to pair Op. 25 with Chopin’s earlier studies, Op. 10. There is an impressive – and intimidating – discography of Chopin’s complete Etudes, recorded by some of the world’s most successful Chopinists: Murray Perahia, Idil Biret, Maurizio Pollini, Janina Fialkowska, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Louis Lortie, to name a few. A newly emerging trend is to set Chopin’s work against contemporary pieces, highlighting just how radical the Polish composer’s use of colour and structure was for its time. For instance, the German-japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott (a contemporary of Rana’s) has just released Echoes of Life, which sees Chopin’s 24 Preludes Op. 28 mixed with works by Ligeti, Nino Rota, Chilly Gonzales, Takemitsu, Pärt and Francesco Tristano and an arrangement of Mozart’s Lacrimosa by Ott herself.
Rana has taken a different direction, programming Op. 25 alongside Chopin’s Scherzos. These four pieces were composed between 1833 and 1843 and trace the development through the composer’s short life. ‘The Scherzi are very different to the Etudes,’ she says. ‘They are four distinct pictures, representing different parts of Chopin’s life and personality. The First Scherzo was composed when Chopin was very young and performing a lot, while the Fourth belongs to the period of the Barcarolle
‘Chopin’s Preludes are far removed from the composer we all know’
and Third Sonata – there’s a compositional maturity, a serenity even. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s the only Scherzo that’s in a major tonality. All the visions of the previous Scherzi are summarised here in a very Classical way.’
Our conversation on Zoom is interrupted by a technical glitch. Rana returns, now framed by a black-andwhite print. The grimacing Cubist faces and contorted limbs are unmistakably Picasso’s Guernica. ‘I love Picasso,’ she says when I ask about the backdrop; ‘I get better Wi-fi in the bedroom.’ It’s an unconventional choice for a room intended for rest, but then Rana isn’t your average concert pianist. Born into a musical family in 1993 (both her mother and father are pianists), she showed an immediate aptitude for the piano, while her sister Ludiovica began studying the cello. Music was a constant presence – to the point that when, as an eight year-old, she attended a friend’s house the young Rana was confused that it did not contain a piano. The aspiring soloist – whose first name is pronounced ‘Bee-uh-tree-chay’, rather than the English iteration often ascribed to her – went on to study at the Nino Rota Conservatory of Music in Monopoli and Rome’s Accademia di Santa Cecilia, with a stint in Hanover’s Hochschule für Musik.
Rana’s breakthrough came in 2011, when she cleared the trophy table at the Montreal International Music Competition, winning first prize, the people’s choice award and the catchily titled ‘award for the best performance of the imposed Canadian work’. Like many people sitting in the Place des Arts on the night of the finals, I knew that I had heard a future star. When I met Rana after her superb performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto, she gave the impression of an experienced musician who was used to the rigours of the competition circuit. Actually, that was the first major competition in which the then-18 year-old had participated. ‘I didn’t expect to be a finalist and I had no expectations or stress,’ she says, reflecting on the moment.
Things might have turned out very differently: not all competition winners go on to have solo careers – something that Rana is acutely aware of. ‘There are so many competitions and all want to give something to their competitors, but the reality is there is a new winner every week!’ she says, ‘It’s difficult to remember who has won what. But for me, competing in Montreal was a fantastic experience that directly led to finding an agent and a recording label.’ (Incidentally, Rana’s first
‘At the moment, we don’t know what we’re doing the next week’
release, for the Atma label in 2012, was those troublesome Chopin Preludes, plus Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 2).
At 21, Rana went on to take a silver medal and the audience award at the 2013 edition of the Van Cliburn competition in Texas. In 2015, her debut album for Warner Classics – Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto and her Montrealwinning Tchaikovsky First, with conductor Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia – received BBC Music Magazine’s Newcomer of the Year
Award. From 2015-17, Rana was also a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (see p12) and was awarded a Borletti-buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2016. An acclaimed recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations was released in 2017, followed by a guest appearance on Pappano and the Accademia’s recording of the Bernstein blockbuster The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No 2.) – Rana glitters in the work’s eccentric piano part.
The pianist’s hometown of Lecce, in the Apulian heel of southern Italy, enjoys blistering summers and charming neoclassical architecture, making it a perfect spot for a chamber music festival. Now in its fifth year, Classiche FORME, run in the city by Rana and a dedicated group of colleagues and family members, has expanded from a small-scale concert series staged at a villa in a neighbouring village to a five-day event that hosts performances in beautiful Baroque buildings – when BBC Music Magazine’s own Jeremy Pound visited Classiche FORME in 2019, he reported on the sublime acoustics of the courtyard within former theology school Chiostro dell’antico Seminario and Palazzo Tamborino Cezzi, as recitals were given under cloudless blue skies.
The 2021 edition of Classiche FORME is set to take place in mid-july, a couple of weeks after our conversation, and these gorgeous settings have added appeal at a time when we have been constantly urged to restrict large indoor gatherings. ‘We have been so afraid of meeting other people that to go back into a concert hall seems like a big thing – even though it is far more controlled than many other venues,’ says Rana, ‘So having performances outside helps take the step forward to “normality”. It’s important for me that the festival goes ahead – it’s not just about organising or playing concerts, it’s about giving strong signals about artistic survival.’
It’s an emotive (perhaps even Chopinesque) description of the current situation. But when we consider the practical realities for musicians, it’s difficult to disagree. Rana had been due to play in the UK several times over the past 15 months – including a Wigmore Hall recital. She is hoping to perform with the London Symphony Orchestra soon, but expresses understandable concern at the rules (in place as we speak) that for visiting Italians mean having to isolate for ten days for one concert.
‘We are used to having our calendars booked for three years but at the moment we don’t know what we’re doing the next week,’ she reflects. She does, at least, know her plans for the following day: she’s heading to Milan to play at La Scala, one of the venue’s current series of ‘exceptional concerts’. But then, all of Rana’s concerts are exceptional.
Beatrice Rana’s new recording of Chopin’s Op. 25 Etudes and Four Scherzos is released on 24 September by Warner Classsics