The Inside Story: Eliane Rodrigues and DREAMSCAPE

Accomplished Brazilian pianist Eliane Rodrigues interprets Chopin with a highly combustible melange of precision, expressiveness and dynamism on her newest release, DREAMSCAPE. With her trademark crystal-clear tone and larger-than-life interpretation, Rodrigues brings Late-Romantic grandeur to the Romantic composer.

Today, Eliane is our featured artist in the “Inside Story,” a blog series exploring the inner workings and personalities of our composers and performers. Read on to learn about her early performances and competitions, and her advice for refining the spirit of the music you intend to share with others…

What have been your biggest inspirations on your musical journey?

Music has accompanied me since my early age. My brother, who was seven years older than me, bought a performance from Rubinstein for my mother, who was the first ballerina soloist at the Ballet Municipal in Rio de Janeiro at that time. He was in love with this music. Tragically, he passed away in a car accident at the age of 14, and one of the last things he did was introduce me to these concerts. I started learning those concerts around the age of 12–13. I’ve played them many times in my life, but I always dreamed of re-orchestrating them for the same big orchestra so we could perform without a conductor.

As time passed, my mother grew older, and I wanted to give her this “new-old” music as a special gift… Unfortunately, it was too late for her to hear it as she passed away a few weeks before our recording. I stayed by her side for six and a half weeks until her last moment, and my scores were printed on the very last day before recording. I will never forget our working  together with the Brussels Philharmonic and their concertmaster, Otto Derolez. Everyone was a partner until the very end of this unforgettable recording.

Tell us about your first performance.

I cannot really remember how I played because I was around 5–6 years old! People said it was very beautiful. I played pieces from Bach, Chopin, and my own compositions. I remember my mother put a pedal on the pedal so I could use it. I also recall my mother telling me to keep my mouth closed because my first two teeth had just fallen out.

If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?

This would be my dream: collaborating with Bernstein, Kleiber, and Celibidache. I love how they made music, their rich imagination in sound, and their understanding of what the composers wanted to share.

What emotions do you hope listeners will experience after hearing your work?

I wish to share warmth, a hand to hold when struggling with bad emotions and difficulties, to prevent losing oneself in dark times. I hope these pieces bring inner peace and love. In life, bad things come to everyone, but nothing lasts forever. Sincere friendship and love cannot be destroyed. The greatest treasure is kindness and purity of spirit.

What were your first musical experiences?

I competed around the age of 6, playing Chopin’s Etude, Bach’s Prelude and Fugue, and Haydn’s Concerto in D Major. I have won my category in this competition and had the great pleasure to play (maybe year after?) the Haydn concert with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

When it was my turn to play at the competition, people didn’t realize that I was a contestant and someone told me to go away from the stage but I replied, “I’m Eliane Rodrigues, and now it is my turn to play.”

How do you prepare for a performance?

Of course, the mechanical side must be there first, but then we start the main work: the spirit of the music you are going to share with others. Timing between the notes, voicing the melodies, combining with the basses, rhythms, legato, staccato combinations — this is the biggest work. It is the respect we must have with the main style and character of the composer that you are bringing to life through you. This work is constant, not only on the piano but everywhere, even when you are almost sleeping.

What are your other passions besides music?

My family, my home, the animals in the garden, and the trees.

What’s the greatest performance you’ve ever seen, and what made it special?

Horowitz, Claudio Arrau, Rachmaninoff, and Michelangeli — all had unique personalities and charisma. Their sound, timing, the way they touched the piano, their sincerity on the podium — all were totally different from each other but so honest with the message the composer wanted to share. They had a big impact on me. At that time, I only spoke Portuguese and the language of music. I felt rather lonely because I had a poor experience with other languages, making it difficult to express myself clearly to others. 

My first lesson in Europe, my teacher asked, “Are you angry?” I heard, “Are you hungry?” and asked, “Do you have a sandwich?” 

But those artists, and the ones I have only heard on CDs and YouTube like Lipatti, Schnabel, Hoffman, Kapell, Samson François, Fleisher, and Rubinstein, all contribute to the great musical heritage we are so fortunate to have. Thanks to our media, this music is distributed everywhere to every music lover, no matter where they are. And of course, the incredible lessons I was also so fortunate to have with Helena Gallo, Arnaldo Estrella, and in Europe with Jacques de Tiège, as well as the great memories from masterclasses with Alexis Weissenberg and Jorge Bolet. All of them were great artists and incredible people. I have kept all these experiences inside my heart as treasures that I share as much as I can with others.