Beatrice Rana: “Come to my festival in Salento, where the public is the protagonist”

TO who is inspired Beatrice Rana? «Anne-Sophie Mutter. Cecilia Bartoli. Martha Argerich. Because, beyond the incredible talent, they have achieved important things in the musical world with their foundations, their projects, shaping the cultural reality in a different way. By changing it» explains the most requested Italian pianist abroad. Not by chance, this is the goal that she sets herself with Classic Shapesthe “International and widespread festival of chamber music in the art and nature of Salento”, which he founded in 2017 and which opens on 17 July. Among the appointments, concerts by Stephen Waarts, Mario Brunello, Giovanni Sollima, Marmen String Quartet, Emmanuel Pahud, Tim Crawford, Tim Posner, Rosa Feola. More tributes to Rachmaninov 150 years after his birth and to Francis Poulenc 60 years after his death.

Thirties of action

«I come from Lecce, a wonderful city but still a cultural periphery, far from everything even geographically. And, having grown up here, I wanted to enrich my land,” he adds. Born into a family of pianists, Beatrice began playing at the age of 3, entered the Conservatory at 8, gave her first recital at 9, established herself at 18 by winning the Montréal International Piano Competition (and from there it is impossible to list all the successes: just mention his 30th birthday, in January, celebrated by playing at Teatro alla Scala), yet it is the opposite of the artist who lives in the ivory tower.

Playing without an audience

«The image of the artist far away, on the hermitage, has perhaps disappeared a bit. And, in any case, I think that as musicians we can do a lot “for” and “with” the public. Looking more at foreign than Italian modelsi, I tried to create an interactive relationship with the spectators: they shouldn’t feel like a passive component of the organization. Theirs is a fundamental role and, if it wasn’t clear enough, we realized it very well during the pandemic. For me it was very difficult to play without an audience».

The stage has been abolished

How, practically? «With the abolition of the standard stage (everyone on the same level) and the creation of informal situations: outdoors, in the fields, among the olive trees. Sometimes there’s a touch of arrogance in fans of the classic, so what in 2022 I indulged in a very communist experiment (laughs): I had a concert whose program I didn’t announce. Not knowing what they would hear, they didn’t have solid certainties about when to applaud, like the neophytes: as there is always a bit of anxiety from “social performance”, I put those present in the same condition».

AND? “They clapped their hands guided only by the pleasure principle, just as it should be.” And young people, who often find Bach or Beethoven too distant, “moldy”? “Young people are always underestimated. The thing I’ve learned in these first years of concert life is that the public is not stupid and you have to trust them. We don’t have to ask, we have to give and then we receive in return. Demanding silence in the room is wrong: you get silence, you don’t expect it. Unfortunately not many agree with me (laughs out loud)».

Make way for young people

«In large centers there is a lot of offer and there is already an audience. Where there is none, it must be built by establishing a relationship of trust. Even more so in the case of young people, given that in Italy there is a lack of musical education in schools: one cannot judge a boy who has never had access to the tools of knowledge, scold him at the slightest wrong gesture like bigots do… It’s not their fault if they don’t know: it is a matter of encouraging them, opening the doors, making them understand that there is no smell of mothballs. Indeed, it is a world in which they can move very easily. I am happy with Classic Shapes (here the program in detail) because it attracts diverse audiences. And then the average age of the people who perform is extremely low, and there is a factor of recognition. Then we opened the call for volunteers, all kids: they feel part of the process».

Clara Schumann according to Beatrice Rana

His latest album (recorded with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin) is entitled Clara and Robert Schumann, Piano concertos. Why this choice? «The point was to show how much Robert took from his wife, and not vice versa. Both are concertos in A minor but Robert wrote it 10 years later. I don’t want to do the passionate (music for me is either good or bad, it has no genres), though Clara deserves a tribute: she was a crazy woman, it can be said that she “invented” my profession. She was the first woman to tour as a concert pianist, and despite having eight children: it seemed absurd in 2023, let alone in the 19th century! And when she was widowed – in her early 30s and in a traumatic way (her husband committed suicide) – she continued her career, becoming a muse for Johannes Brahms. She was strong, visionary, brilliant: she wrote this revolutionary concert at 14, a little girl. Only she could set limits, and unfortunately she did: after the wedding, she stopped composing ».

Emancipation step

In two centuries what has changed for female musicians, and for female pianists in particular? «The situation has definitely improved: we are not many, but still many. There was a fundamental step for emancipation: since I was a very small child I grew up with the conviction that I could do it. For me, Argerich was a model of pianist in general (she plays like God!), and of a woman pianist in particular: by now there are points of reference. In the case of female composers, the way to go is longer: there are good ones, there are many, but it is a fact that 95 percent of classical music performed is male. A non-current discrimination, but the result of centuries of cultural discrimination”.

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