There has been a lot of star-is-born noise around the 22-year-old Italian pianist Beatrice Rana, and it might be justified. Teamed with Antonio Pappano and his Accademia di Santa Cecilia orchestra, she is a compelling storyteller: her playing has all the sustained force and perfectly weighted brilliance you could want, but has a glint in its eye, too.
In Prokofiev’s Concerto No 2, her first-movement cadenza is gripping in its sheer scale; the ensuing orchestral entry hits like a tidal wave. Then there is Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No 1, to which Rana lends a feeling of narrative that makes sense of its sprawling structure. Rana and the orchestra wind up gloriously to the climax of the finale, then stand poised, ready to hurl themselves off the other side. It’s a thrilling cliffhanger to cap a hugely enjoyable disc.
