Pianist Beatrice Rana has been announced as the latest signing to Warner Classics. The 22-year-old Italian has just recorded her first album, to be released this autumn, for the label in Rome, with Sir Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Pappano wanted to record with Rana after hearing her play, leading to this disc of ever-popular, virtuosic repertoire: Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2. '[He is a] formidable conductor with prodigious energy,' Rana told Italy's La Repubblica. 'I admire his dedication as well as his rustic, hands-on approach.'
Rana took the silver medal and audience award at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, playing Prokofiev’s Second and Beethoven’s Third Concertos in the final. She already has two CDs to her name: a programme of Bartók, Ravel and Schumann on Harmonia Mundi, released as a result of her Van Cliburn success, and a disc of Chopin and Scriabin on ATMA Classique. This will be her first concerto disc.
‘Beatrice Rana has everything,’ says Jean-Philippe Rolland, president of artists and repertoire at Warner Classics; ‘exquisite technique combined with a Mediterranean passion reminiscent of the golden age of the piano. She has a vision and inspiration we seldom encounter at such young age.’
Rana made her concerto debut at the age of nine, performing Bach’s Concerto in F minor, and studied in Italy before heading to Hannover, Germany, where she now studies. Her burgeoning concert career includes a debut at the Verbier Festival this weekend, replacing Mikhail Pletnev, and an appearance performing Prokofiev with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall on 27 November. And Rana will be touring Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Buenos Aires with Pappano and his Italian ensemble in 2016.
