photo: Karine Gondim

"Piano extraordinaire"

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Hailing from the vibrant heart of Rio de Janeiro, Eliane Rodrigues emerged early on as a musical prodigy, her innate talent blossoming in the colorful tapestry of Brazilian culture. Her exceptional capabilities were first nurtured by Helena Gallo and subsequently honed under the guidance of Arnaldo Estrella, a student of the renowned Alfred Cortot and Yves Nat.

By the tender age of 3, Rodrigues was already composing music, an astonishing feat for someone who hadn’t yet learned to read or write musical notation. This early promise was followed by her development of two piano methods by the age of 7. She gave her first recital at 5 and made her television debut a year later, performing Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D major with the Orquestra Sinfonica Nacional. Continuing her early successes, she played Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major (K. 488) with the National Symphony Orchestra at just 7 years old.

Her ascent in the world of classical music was marked by numerous accolades, including the prestigious Gina Bachauer prize at the Van Cliburn Competition in the United States, a recognition she earned at just 18 years old.

In Belgium, where she continued her studies under Jacques Detiège, a pupil of Leon Fleischer and Maria Curcio, Rodrigues not only flourished in competitions but also enriched her artistic repertoire, a journey that led her to become a revered professor at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp.

Rodrigues’ discography, encompassing over 25 releases, is a testament to her versatility and includes live performances and studio albums, notably encompassing the complete piano concertos of both Sergey Prokofiev and Beethoven.

In recent years, her collaboration with PARMA Recordings has expanded her presence in the digital music world, with her albums being widely accessible on platforms like Naxos, iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Queen Elisabeth Competition was disrupted like many other cultural events, a special initiative in Belgium, “De Week van de Koningin Top 30,” was organized. This event featured a culmination of the most memorable moments from the competition’s history, celebrating 30 unforgettable performances. In this retrospective, Belgian listeners of Klara, a prominent classical music radio station, voted Rodrigues as their all-time favorite performer. Her interpretation of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto at the 1983 competition, where she was awarded 5th place, not only garnered international praise but also left an indelible mark on the hearts of music aficionados, cementing her legacy in the classical music world.

Amid the global crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rodrigues innovatively embraced digital platforms to stay connected with her audience, initiating a series of over 150 live streams that not only showcased her musical brilliance but also provided solace to a global audience during a time of unprecedented challenge. Her virtual concerts transcended geographical boundaries, fostering a sense of global community and shared experience, and stood as a testament to the power of music in fostering hope and resilience.

Albums

Dreamscape

Release Date: July 12, 2024
Catalog Number: NV6636
Romantic
Concertos
Orchestra
Piano
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. The juxtaposition of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 with his famous Préludes op. 28 impressively highlights one of the greatest strengths of Rodrigues: her ability to coax orchestral colors from seemingly straightforward solo piano pieces. The shades and hues she manages to produce unveil an entirely new facet of the Polish composer's works: a sense of spatial vastness and exuberance.

Götterfunken

Release Date: November 12, 2021
Catalog Number: NV6382
Classical
Chamber
Piano
Inspired by a transcription by composer Franz Liszt, GÖTTERFUNKEN employs the duality of two grand pianos to reimagine and reinterpret Beethoven’s revered Ninth Symphony. As mother and daughter, pianists Eliane Rodrigues and Nina Smeets infuse their own personal flair with Rodrigues’s arrangement, following the path Beethoven paved while connecting his work to the present day with small instances of improvisation throughout that reflect his original stylistic preferences. Conceptualized in the age of social distancing, GÖTTERFUNKEN was arranged not only to reunite Rodrigues and Smeets through music, but the world as a whole with Beethoven’s magnum opus.

ÆTERNUM

Release Date: May 8, 2020
Catalog Number: NV6285
Baroque
Classical
Solo Instrumental
Piano
ÆTERNUM is a tribute to music's infallible steadfastness against the mundane adversity of human existence. Brazilian-born pianist Eliane Rodrigues convinces with her forceful, furious interpretations of keyboard works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven – among them the latter's Fifth Symphony, grippingly arranged by Rodrigues herself.

The Gershwin & Bernstein Connection

Release Date: May 24, 2019
Catalog Number: NV6230
20th Century
Chamber
Percussion
Piano
Piano virtuoso Eliane Rodrigues returns with her latest Navona Records release — THE GERSHWIN & BERNSTEIN CONNECTION, a new look at timeless pieces by legendary American composers. Together with talented artists including her daughter, pianist Nina Smeets, Rodrigues thrills audiences once again with her moving and truly spellbinding performances.

Reflets

Release Date: June 8, 2018
Catalog Number: NV6164
20th Century
Solo Instrumental
Piano
With two critically-lauded releases on Navona Records (NOTTURNO, performing works by Chopin, and a four-CD box set, BEETHOVEN – 8 CONCERTI) pianist Eliane Rodrigues returns with REFLETS showcasing the pianist’s nuanced and thoughtful performances of fifteen works by Claude Debussy. While it might seem that child prodigies are commonplace in the world of classical music, only a few truly make a lasting impact, one that lives on long after those prodigies have passed well into their adulthoods. Mozart began to play piano at the age of three, Beethoven did so at seven and a half, and Georges Bizet did so before his tenth birthday. Pianist Eliane Rodrigues, who began composing at three, played her first recital at five and first performed with an orchestra when she was just six years of age, can certainly be counted among those prodigious musicians, as evidenced on her latest recording, REFLETS.

Beethoven

Release Date: December 1, 2017
Catalog Number: NV6138
Classical
Concertos
Orchestra
Piano
In this stunning tour through the concerti of Beethoven’s early and middle periods, pianist Eliane Rodrigues captivates her listeners with graceful keyboard virtuosity, accompanied by the renowned St. Petersburg State Orchestra, Maestro Walter Proost at the podium. The technicality is so precise, the performance so true to period, that one might think the composer himself was at the piano.

Notturno

Release Date: October 13, 2017
Catalog Number: NV6123
Romantic
Solo Instrumental
Piano
Navona Records’ NOTTURNO: The Complete Nocturnes and Ballades of Chopin is a fresh look at some of the Polish composer’s most expressive works. The nocturnes and ballades are also some of Chopin’s most innovative works, displaying exciting advancements in harmony, rhythm, and form—all renewed in pianist Eliane Rodrigues’s nuanced, thoughtful performances, recorded in Sacilie, Italy’s acoustically advanced Fazioli Concert Hall.