Presto Editor's Choice
October 2019

Beatrice Rana (piano)

Ravel: Miroirs, 5 pieces for piano
Stravinsky: The Firebird
Stravinsky: Three Movements from Petrushka
Ravel: La Valse

Beatrice Rana, in the words of the New York Times, is a pianist who “has ferocious technique but is distinguished by her musical intelligence.” Here she plays virtuosic, poetic works that evoke the creative ferment of Paris in the transitional early years of the 20th century: piano transcriptions of Stravinsky’s iridescent ballet scores The Firebird and Petrushka, and Ravel’s Miroirs and La Valse.

"This is some of the most exhilarating, electrifying pianism I’ve heard all year: in Guido Agosti’s transcription of The Firebird Suite the young Italian summons a range of colours and textures that rival the best orchestral accounts of the work, maintaining absolute clarity even in the densest passages, and the way she varies the repeated phrases at top speed in the final stretches of Ravel’s La Valse is a marvel." - Presto Classical, October 2019.