Beatrice Rana’s Warner Classics Chopin album featured in The New York Times

Beatrice Rana’s Chopin album featuring the Op. 25 Etudes and 4 Scherzi is praised by The New York Times (Photo credit: Simon Fowler)

5 Classical Albums to Hear Right Now
By Anthony Tommasini
The New York Times
October 28, 2021

Chopin: Études and Scherzos
Beatrice Rana, piano (Warner Classics)

True to the heritage of the piano étude, Chopin wrote his 24 (in two books of 12) as formidable study pieces to develop specific aspects of technique. Most pianists able to play these daunting works strive to convey the intricacies and strokes of imagination in the music. Then there is Beatrice Rana in her remarkable new recording of the second book, along with the four scherzos. While surmounting their challenges easily, she convinces you that these are among the most poetic and musical pieces Chopin produced.

The magic starts with the Étude in A flat. The rippling arpeggios that run throughout unfold with wondrous delicacy and milky colorings, as a gentle melody flows by. The Étude in F is so playful and crisp you might not realize how hard it is to execute the squiggly figures that leap high and low in both hands. In études that provide rigorous workouts in double thirds, octaves and more, Rana brings out ebullience, mystery and fearsome intensity.

Her scintillating accounts of the scherzos deftly balance bursts of breathless passagework and plaintive lyricism. The Scherzo in E is especially fine — all dancing chords, fleet runs and coy handling of the music’s sudden stop and starts.

To read the full feature, click here.