Sergei Prokofiev; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Piano Concertos (Beatrice Rana)

Information

Composer: Sergei Prokofiev; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

• (01) Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16
• (05) Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23

Beatrice Rana, piano
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Antonio Pappano, conductor

Date: 2015
Label: Warner Classics
https://www.warnerclassics.com/release/prokofiev-piano-concerto-no-2-tchaikovsky-piano-concerto-no-1

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Review

As word began to trickle out from Fort Worth during the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition, her name kept coming up: the young Italian who had to be heard to be believed. And though she was awarded the silver medal rather than the gold, as she toured Stateside the buzz continued to grow. In a word? Beatrice Rana is fierce!

And not only as a pianist but as a fully developed artist of a stature that belies her tender years. If you’ve not heard her pre- and post-competition solo recordings (Chopin and Scriabin on ATMA Classique; Schumann, Ravel and Bartók on Harmonia Mundi), you don’t want to miss her concerto debut, held aloft in inimitable style by Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

This is a Prokofiev Second to conjure with: shapely, subtle, nuanced, musical in every detail. Even via the medium of recording you can sense the hushed focus of the orchestral musicians, intent on reflecting every gesture of the soloist. Rana’s lithe and nimble interpretation restores the humanity to this often brutalised score. Her originality is nowhere more evident than in the first-movement development-cum-cadenza, where it’s impossible to imagine what is coming next. At the climactic moment, with nowhere else left to turn, Pappano and the Romans arrive in a dazzling display of apocalyptic sonorities that simultaneously overwhelms and consoles. The remarkable thing is what this hand-in-glove collaboration still has in store.

There’s a menacing, dry, hyper-articulate Vivace that seems over before it has begun, followed by a rhythmically incisive Intermezzo of Mendelssohnian delicacy, its glissandos as fine as cobwebs, all of it culminating in a finale that sheds new light on this concerto’s architecture and emotional cohesion.

Space limitations preclude a description of this bejewelled imperial Russian Tchaikovsky Concerto, its life and breath emanating not from any straining after novelty but from a fresh, close reading of a beloved score we all thought we knew. I can’t think of another recent concerto release that, beginning to end, affords greater pleasure. Bravissimo tutti!

-- Patrick Rucker, Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / RECORDING: *****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Mar/Tchaikovsky_PC1_2564600909.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/10/beatrice-rana-prokofiev-tchaikovsky-concertos-review
http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_cd_review.php?id=13313
https://www.allmusic.com/album/prokofiev-piano-concerto-no-2-tchaikovsky-piano-concerto-no-1-mw0002874007
https://www.amazon.com/Beatrice-Orchestra-Accademia-Nazionale-Cecilia/dp/B016AVYYZO

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Sergei Prokofiev (23 April, 1891–March 5, 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous genres, he was one of the major composers of the 20th century. Prokofiev wrote seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra, and nine completed piano sonatas, many of which are widely known and heard. He also enjoyed personal and artistic support from a new generation of Russian performers, notably Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Prokofiev

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (25 April/7 May 1840 – 25 October/6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the romantic period who wrote some of the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote many works that are popular with the classical music public, including his Romeo and Juliet, the 1812 Overture, three ballets, last three symphonies, the 1st Piano Concerto and the Violin Concerto. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky

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Beatrice Rana (born January 22, 1993 in Copertino) is an Italian pianist. Rana began studying piano at the age of 4, and made her orchestral debut at 9. She studied with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover and Benedetto Lupo at the Nino Rota Conservatory of Music in Monopoli. Rana won the first prize and special jury prizes at the 2011 Montreal International Piano Competition and the silver medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. She is an exclusive recording artist for Warner Classics, and was nominated for the Classic Brit Awards for her recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Rana
https://www.beatriceranapiano.com/

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