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Beatrice Rana, partnered by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, performs the piano concertos of Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck-Schumann. She complements them with Liszt’s transcription for solo piano of Robert’s song ‘Widmung’, an exuberant dedication of love, composed in the year of Robert and Clara’s marriage. The previous year (1839), Robert had written to Clara: “You complete me as a composer, as I do you. Every thought of yours comes from mysoul, just as I have to thank you for all my music.” “It was only when I began working on Clara’s concerto that I realised just how visionary this woman was from such a young age,” says Beatrice Rana. Referring to the piano-cello duet in the first movement, she adds: “She was the first to have this flash of inspiration. From the score and from all I’ve learned about Clara, it’s very clear to me that her approach to music was very instinctive. And what she writes in her concerto is so pianistically challenging that I have no doubt about what an incredible composer–performer she was. You can immediately tell it was written by someone who had absolutely no problems at the keyboard. I remember reading that, when Robert was writing his concerto, he was elaborating a particular passage as an orchestral tutti, without piano. Clara intervened and asked, ‘Why don’t you have me play there? Please, write me something!’ ... She enjoyed challenges, and I think that strong personality of hers shows through in her own concerto.” Yannick Nézet-Séguin points out that “For some time, we’ve been aware of Clara’s importance as an influential figure within the world of great male composers, but that’s where it’s important now to redress history, because she’s so much more than that. From Clara’s concerto it’s especially clear that she led the way at the beginning of their relationship, particularly with her virtuosity as a pianist, but clearly as a composer, too, she influenced Robert.” Beatrice Rana agrees that “There is some of Clara’s influence in the sheer variety of Robert’s concerto. And of course all Robert’s piano music was written for Clara’s hands, so her specific pianism must have influenced his writing a great deal.”