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Beatrice Rana at the 2013 Cliburn Competition · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:07
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
• 0:11
  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
• 0:14
  I hope you will consider taking out a paid subscription
• 0:18
  to this podcast. I've provided a link to do so
• 0:21
  in our episode comments. Your support helps keep
• 0:25
  The Piano Maven in production. I could look back
• 0:51
  at the 2013 competition that introduced... the
• 0:56
  then 20 -year -old Italian pianist Beatrice Rana
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  to the general piano public. And I already heard
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  her 2012 recording debut for the Atma label when
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  it was released. And I thought it was very good.
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  It was an all Chopin and Scriabin recital. But
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  her performances at the 2013 Clyburn, for which
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  she won the silver medal, revealed an extraordinary
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  artistic blossoming over the past year. Harmonia
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  Mundi released performances of hers on CD from
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  the 2013 competition. And this disc included
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  Schumann's Symphonic Variations, Bartok's Out
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  of Door Suite, and Ravel's Gaspard de Lanouis.
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  And I just flipped over this disc when it came
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  out, and I gave a rave review of it. in classicstoday
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  .com. And the final sentence in my review read
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  like this. I wrote, a remarkable disc from a
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  young pianist with an old soul destined for greatness.
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  So I'm proud to say that I called it. I don't
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  know if you heard it from me first, but I certainly
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  am proud that I recognized what a special pianist
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  she was. And of course, Beatrice Arana has gone
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  on to a successful international career. So let's
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  talk about this 2013 Harmonia Mundi disc with
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  Beatrice Arana. These are all live performances
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  from the 2013 Clyburn competition, and I suspect
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  that they were not edited. I think these are
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  just live as they happened. What you hear is
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  what you get, or what you heard is what you got,
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  whatever. I don't know. My grammar is out to
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  lunch today. But her Schumann symphonic etudes
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  don't include the posthumous variations, which
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  I think is perfectly fine. I'm very happy to
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  hear the shorter version of it, which used to
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  be standard among pianists. You know, they would
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  usually just play the standard text, maybe one
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  or two posthumous variations, and they wouldn't
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  play each and every repeat. the way you're supposed
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  to do it now. Otherwise, you get arrested because
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  you're not being politically correct. But Beatrice
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  Tarana's interpretation is fantastic. It abounds
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  with vitality and dynamism and poetic fantasy.
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  She makes the smoothest transitions. And there's
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  so many cool details. For instance, in the first
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  etude, she inflects those dotted rhythms with
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  such subtle variations of phrase and accent,
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  and they never sound square as a result. And
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  the second etude has amazing inner voices. I
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  mean, she really plays this like she's Alfred
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  Courtauld incarnate, which is a high compliment
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  for me. And the etude number three, the right
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  -hand arpeggios are steady as a rock, but they
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  never sound cut and dried or mechanical. And
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  those canons, the chords, you know, where the
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  left hand is imitating the right hand. You hear
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  little melodies inside those chords that few
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  other pianists bring out. Usually when you hear
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  a pianist play this etude, you hear the top line
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  and then the rest of it is kind of mush. But
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  she really voices these chords to the proverbial
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  nines. And the whole interpretation is just full
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  of these fantastic details. She really sounds
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  like a dead pianist, and that is my highest compliment.
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  Now let's talk about Bartok's out -of -door suite.
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  Bartok never banged out his music the way that
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  so many so -called Bartok specialists do. In
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  fact, there's that famous story that Andor Foldis
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  told where... Bartok was coaching a young pianist,
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  and the pianist was banging out the music, and
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  Bartok said, don't play this so Bartokian. And
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  Beatrice Urana is not percussive at all, but
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  she's totally rhythmic, and there is a difference.
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  And what beautiful details in this performance,
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  like the Barcarola's textural strands sound so
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  three -dimensional, it's almost as... If she's
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  playing on three different pianos in three different
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  rooms, it's really amazing to hear this. And
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  in those cluster chords in the musette, you actually
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  hear the pitches. It just doesn't sound like
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  banging. You can really identify the pitches.
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  And then in the last movement, the chase, you
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  have these elaborate cross rhythms, and it's
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  so easy to kind of punch it out and go overboard.
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  She really is orchestrating them so that the
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  momentum is generated through color as much as
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  through rhythm. She's really orchestrating the
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  piece rather than just slapping the keys. And
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  Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit gets a really wonderful
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  performance. Her way with Scarbo, the last movement,
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  don't expect anything demonic or breakneck in
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  the... Ivo Pogorelich or Benjamin Grosvenor way,
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  but her poise, the way the chords are voiced,
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  and the way that the climaxes are gauged, and
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  the very sophisticated pedal effects. This is
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  really quite something. I think Walter Giesecke
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  would have envied her pedaling in this movement.
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  And then Le Gibet has a rock -steady pulse. It
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  never slows down. It is laser -like in its concentration,
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  but with so much color and timbral dimension.
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  And you can say the same with Ondine. It's brisk,
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  but it's shimmering, and it's flexible and poetic,
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  for lack of a better word. So in short, this
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  is just world -class and inspired piano playing
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  by the 20 -year -old Beatrice Rana. And of course,
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  she has gone on to a big, serious international
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  career. But let me reiterate what I said in my
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  original review, that this is a remarkable disc
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  from a young pianist with an old soul destined
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  for greatness. And I think I was right. I hope
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  you will be able to find this disc. I'm sure
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  you will. It's pretty easy to source. You will
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  love it. I guarantee. and I have loved this for
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  years, and I return to it often with great pleasure.
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  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
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  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings, and I look forward to being
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  with you for our next episode.