Beatrice Rana, piano

Italian pianist Beatrice Rana has become a force in the international classical music world, receiving admiration from critics and audiences alike. As renowned for her sensitivity and musical intelligence as she is for her vivid colorations and pyrotechnics, she is a pianist who truly has it all.

Beatrice Rana has performed at the world’s most esteemed concert halls and festivals including Berlin Philharmonie, New York’s Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and more. She was named “Young Artist of the Year” at the 2017 Gramophone Awards and “Discovery of the Year” at the Edison Awards. 

Rana takes on one of the pinnacles of the piano repertory, Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, in her return to the Series. 

Her program also includes Bach’s French Suite No. 2 in C minor. The set of dances calls to mind the same composer’s Goldberg Variations, which Rana recorded and released in 2017 to near-universal acclaim. The New York Times’ Anthony Tommasini praised her “wondrous lightness and sparkle, yet uncanny poise, which actually enhances the excitement: You listen in awe, wondering how she can bring out both qualities at once.”

Debussy’s Pour le piano, published in 1901 but consisting of movements inspired by earlier centuries – a prelude, a sarabande, and a toccata – gives a late-Romantic / early-Modern perspective on the same Baroque dances and forms that proved such fertile ground for Bach.

 The (London) Times praised her, saying “Rana’s playing has a kind of Orphic seductiveness, a transcendent lightness of touch. A supremely intelligent reading.”

An Aaron Richmond Recital