Chopin: Prelude Op. 28 No. 17 in A flat major

In June 2011, Beatrice Rana, then 18, became the youngest-ever winner of a first prize at the Montreal International Music Competition. She also won each of that year’s special prizes. She is, said Le Devoir, “not only a pianist but, above all, an artist.” Her ATMA solo CD is dedicated to Chopin’s Preludes Op. 28 and Scriabin’s Sonata No. 2 Op.19 — thrilling repertoire for an outstanding young pianist.

Beatrice Rana made her debut last season with several orchestras, including the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, the Südwestdeutsche Orchester, and the Aarhus Symfonieorkester in Denmark. She also performed as a guest artist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the symphony orchestras of Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg, the Kuala Lumpur Philharmonic Orchestra, the Violons du Roy, and the Orchestre Métropolitain with Yannick Nézet-Seguin.

Beatrice Rana made her debut last season with several orchestras, including the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, the Südwestdeutsche Orchester, and the Aarhus Symfonieorkester in Denmark. She also performed as a guest artist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the symphony orchestras of Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg, the Kuala Lumpur Philharmonic Orchestra, the Violons du Roy, and the Orchestre Métropolitain with Yannick Nézet-Seguin.

In addition to her First Prize in the Montreal Piano Competition last year, Rana has won numerous prizes at international competitions such as the Muzio Clementi Competion, the Concours International de San Marino, and the Bang & Olufsen Piano RAMA Competion.

She began studying piano when she was 4, and became a student of Benedetto Lupo at the Conservatorio Nino Rota, from which she graduated at the precocious age of 16. She now studies in Hanover with Arie Vardi.

This new recording of the complete Preludes of Frederick Chopin represents the debut on Telarc Classics of the highly regarded young Venezuelan-American pianist Vanessa Perez. In recent years she has been championed as one of the best young musical talents on the scene by the likes of legendary pianist Claudio Arrau and the great conductor Zubin Mehta.

Vanessa Perez is a product of the same energised musical culture in Venezuela that produced such international stars as conductor Gustavo Dudamel and pianist Gabriela Montero. In 2009 she performed alongside star violinist Joshua Bell in Astor Piazzolla’s ‘Oblivion’ on his “At Home with Friends” album for Sony Classical. She also worked with Jan Vogler on Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango and other pieces for the cellist’s 2008 album “Tango”, also released by Sony. In 2005 she produced a solo album for VAI that featured Chopin’s four Ballades, pieces from Albéniz’s Ibería and a work by contemporary composer Suzanne Farrin.

Perez makes her Telarc Classics debut with an all-Chopin collection that includes the 24 Preludes Op. 28, and some other popular pieces, among them the Barcarolle in F sharp major and the Fantasie in F minor.

This CD has been released in memory of Tatiana Shebanova, who died last year, not long after these recordings were made. It shows the exceptional relationship which she had with the historic Erard piano heard here. She fell in love with the instrument the very first time she played it.

This double-CD set includes all of Ivo Pogorelich’s solo Chopin recordings: complete sets of Preludes and Scherzos, the “Funeral March” Sonata – in a recital that includes Etudes, the Polonaise op. 44 and the timeless E-flat Nocturne op. 55 no. 2. Pogorelich brings all of his magnificent technique and virtuosity to these masterpieces.

”Second to none in sheer keyboard brilliance … everything he does is always done with princely authority.” (Gramophone)

These recordings were made in Munich in 1955 and 1956. The bonus is Cortot performing the 4 Impromptus by Chopin, recorded in London on 5th July 1934.

Chopin’s 24 Preludes Op.28 are written in the tradition of J S Bach and this work is particularly attractive to organists. The pieces have been adapted for organ, but Gunther Rost has not changed the musical texts. He performs on the Seifert organ in the Church of the Virgin Mary in Kevelaer which is the largest romantic German organ in the world.