Beatrice Rana’s Warner Classics Chopin album wins Diapason Magazine’s “Gold of the Year”

Beatrice Rana’s new album is given the honors of the most outstanding classical recording of the year by reviewers of France’s Diapason Magazine (Photo credit: Simon Fowler)

Diapason d'or of the year 2021 for Beatrice Rana
By Loïc Chahine
Diapason Magazine
December 28, 2021

Sensual rubato, magnitude of the sonority superbly captured: the Italian pianist gives one of the greatest versions of Chopin’s Opus 25.

Beatrice Rana: “In a way, I had never before recorded for Warner a full disc devoted to the repertoire for solo piano: the Goldberg Variations by Bach were originally written for harpsichord, and my Ravel / Stravinsky album consists largely of arrangements of orchestral works. Now, is there a composer more emblematic of the piano than Chopin, in many ways the king of the instrument? As with Mozart, of which so many aspects bring him together, achieving simplicity with Chopin, while leaving the feeling of improvisation that his music procures alive, is a challenge. We must always strive for this balance between freedom and refinement. Handling the rubato is tricky. On this point, an Alfred Cortot was a source of inspiration. Young, I hated him, but after listening to him again, I was finally conquered by his imagination and his fantasy. Another challenge: Chopin is one of the few musicians who speaks to everyone, not just connoisseurs, unlike Schumann or Prokofiev, for example. Not because it is easy music, but because it has as many possible readings as there are listeners. After this album, as in the previous ones, I felt exhausted and could not perform in concert for a while. In fact, I try to find the same intensity in the studio as on stage: recording must always be a shock.”

To view the honors, click here.