Precocious talent, Paolo Restani gave his first recital at the age of 12. In 1984, at the age of 16, he was invited by the great artistic director Francesco Siciliani for a cycles of recitals at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome where he achieved an extraordinary success confirmed by the most influential critique: “He is destined from now to become part of the great piano tradition of our country” (Alfredo Gasponi, Il Messaggero), “At Santa Cecilia a star was born” (Mya Tannenbaum, Corriere della Sera), “He is just sixteen years old, but you can hardly believe it: Paolo Restani - who made his first appearance last night at the Academy of Santa Cecilia - is a totally shocking talent” (Ivana Musani, Paese Sera).

Since then, he started to be engaged by the most important Italian theatres. In January 1988, his memorable concert at the Sala Verdi in Milan for the “Serate Musicali” is among the most successful achievements of that period: invited to replace Alexis Weissenberg with just a few hours notice, Restani performed a programme including Beethoven’s Eroica Variations and Liszt’s 12 Études d’Exécution Transcendante.

 

During his 35-year career he performed in many of the most important music venues in the world, standing out for his very personal and constantly evolving interpretation. His technical mastery and depth of reading, make him an excellent performer, especially of the Romantic repertoire where his virtuosity reminds us of the greatest names of the piano tradition: ...his performance of Chopin’s compositions shows astonishing affinities with Vladimir Horowitz for the timbre, the richness of the colour and the charm of the melody (Allgemeine Zeitung, on the occasion of a recital in Frankfurt in 1996).

 

In June 2004 his debut with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala conducted by Riccardo Muti (Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto) was unanimously and enthusiastically acclaimed.

In 2008 - again with Muti - he performed as a soloist in the symphonic production Lélio ou Le Retour à la vie op. 14b by Berlioz, together with Gérard Depardieu (narrator’s voice), Mario Zeffiri (tenor), the Luigi Cherubini Orchestra, the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor.

 

Recitals performed during the recent seasons include the following venues: Carnegie Hall in New York, Grosser Musikvereinsaal in Vienna, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Prinzregententheater in Münich, Rheingoldhalle in Mainz, New Congress-Hall in Innsbruck, International Performing Arts Centre in Moscow, Great Hall of St. Petersburg Philarmonia, Colon and Coliseo Theatres in Buenos Aires, London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Beirut, Santiago de Chile, Montevideo, Dubai, Kuwait City, Manama. In Italy: Milan (Teatro alla Scala, Auditorium La Verdi), Rome (Quirinale, Auditorium del Parco della Musica, Teatro dell’Opera, Auditorium di Via della Conciliazione, Teatro Sistina), Naples (Teatro San Carlo, Teatro Augusteo, Politeama), Venice (Teatro La Fenice), Trieste (Teatro Verdi), Verona (Arena), Bologna (Teatro Comunale), Florence (Teatro Comunale, Teatro della Pergola), Turin (Teatro Regio, Auditorium RAI), Bari (Teatro Petruzzelli), Genoa (Teatro Carlo Felice), Palermo (Politeama).

 

Paolo Restani is a regular guest of some prestigious music festivals, including Flanders Festival, Martha Argerich Festival in Buenos Aires, Hatchlands Music Festival in London, Istanbul Recitals, Al Bustan Festival in Beirut, Ljubljana Festival, Jornadas Internacionales de Piano in Oviedo, Asturias Festival, Ravenna Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Settembre Musica in Turin, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli International Piano Festival in Brescia and Bergamo, Festival Verdi in Parma, Festival Uto Ughi per Roma, Panatenee Pompeiane, Festival Romaeuropa, Todi Arte Festival, Ravello Festival.

 

In January 2008, at Yuri Temirkanov’s invitation, he took part to the XVII International Festival “Christmas Musical Meetings in Palmira of the North” in St. Petersburg.

 

He is also very popular in South-America, where he usually travels every year. In 2005 he was awarded best interpreter of the year by the “Association of Argentina Critics” and in 2011 for his concerts with the Quartetto d’archi della Scala as best ensemble.

 

 

He performed as a soloist with orchestras such as Münchner Symphoniker, Berliner Symphoniker, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, St. Petersburg Academic Symphony, Philarmonique de Nice, Slovenia RTV, Sinfonica Nacional de Chile, Kiev Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker String Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Milan, Rome and Naples RAI National Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino, Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Orchestra del Teatro Verdi di Trieste, Orchestra Sinfonica Arturo Toscanini di Parma.

Among the conductors: Roberto Abbado, Gerd Albrecht, Piero Bellugi, Christian Benda, Yoram David, Vladimir Delman, Claus Peter Flor, Heiko Mathias Forster, Lu Jia, Lothar Koenigs, Gerard Korsten, Julian Kavatchev, Gustav Kuhn, Uroš Lajovic, Yoel Levi, John Nelson, John Neschling, Gunter Neuhold, Daniel Oren, Massimo Pradella, Donato Renzetti.

 

Very keen on chamber music, he performed with the Quartetto d’archi della Scala, the Quartetto Fonè, the Quartetto David, the Solisti della Scala, the violist Simonide Braconi, the cellist Andrea Noferini. He also accompanied singers such as Monica Bacelli, Guillemette Laurens and Claire Brua in different song cycles.

 

Versatile musician, Paolo Restani encourages the integration among different art forms: he is co-protagonist of many theatrical productions with artists such as Gérard Depardieu, Enrico Maria Salerno, Mariano Rigillo, Gottfried Wagner, Carla Fracci, Sylvie Guillelme, and Laurent Hilaire.

Between 2006 and 2008 he created together with Chiara Muti three original musical plays about Rachmaninov and Gogol, Mozart’s life, and the relationship between Wagner and Ludwig II of Bavaria. Since 2013 he has been working with Italian actress Simona Marchini on a play about Giuseppe Verdi’s life, still now on tour in Italy.

 

His huge repertoire ranges from Bach to modern composers, and includes more than 60 concertos for piano and orchestra and as many solo-recital programmes.

Fond of the masterworks of the Romantic period and the the 20th century, Restani performed Brahms’s opera omnia, the most part of Chopin, Debussy, Ravel and Rachmaninov’s compositions, the complete Studies of Chopin, Scriabin and Liszt (more than 150 executions of the 12 Études d’exécution trascendante), and the complete works for piano and orchestra by Beethoven, Field, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, and Casella.

The great dedication to Franz Liszt’s work makes him one of the composer’s best interpreters.

His collaboration with Michael Nyman led to the first Italian performance of The Piano Concerto  for piano and orchestra, taken from the soundtrack of the Oscar-winning film The Piano Lesson  by Jane Campion.

 

 

 

Paolo Restani was the last and best-loved piano-pupil of Vincenzo Vitale (a famous representative of the Scuola Pianistica Napoletana; he studied with Florestano Rossomandi, Attilio Brugnoli and Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de Musique in Paris).

Paolo Restani also studied with Gerhard Oppitz (a successor of the interpretative art of Wilhelm Kempff) at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich and with Peter Lang at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He was given piano lessons by Vladimir Ashkenazy, Aldo Ciccolini, Gustav Kuhn and Piero Rattalino.

He studied composition with Paolo Arcà in Rome and with Bruno Bettinelli in Milan.

 

Since 2018 he is a Steinway Artist.

 

Main CD recordings and DVDs:

. Liszt - Totentanz for piano and orchestra, European Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor:                                              

  Peter Jan Marthé (Polyglobe-1997)

. Liszt – 12 Études d’Exécution Transcendante and Concerto Études (Amadeus-2004)     

. Rachmaninov – 18 Preludes (Amadeus-2008)

. Casella – Scarlattiana op. 44, Triplo Concerto op. 56, A notte alta op. 30b for piano and

  orchestra, Orchestra “Filarmonica ‘900” of the Teatro Regio in Turin. Conductor: Marzio Conti (Brilliant  

  Classics-2008)

. Brahms, Godowski, Scriabin, Saint-Saëns, Bartok, Liszt, Sancan – Piano works for the left hand  only (DECCA-2009)

. Berlioz - Lélio ou Le Retour à la vie op. 14b, conductor Riccardo Muti, Orchestra Luigi Cherubini,

  Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, narrator’s voice Gérard

  Depardieu, tenor Mario Zeffiri (CD & DVD Gruppo Editoriale l’Epresso-2009)

. Field – Seven Concertos for piano and orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Conductor: 

  Marco Guidarini (4 CD Brilliant Classics-2009)

. Brahms - Variations on a Theme by Paganini op. 35, Variations from String Sextet op. 18, Five Studies (DECCA-2010)

. Rachmaninov – Six Preludes, Trancriptions, Sonata No. 2 op. 36 (Amadeus-2010)

. Brahms - Piano Quintet op. 34, Schumann - Piano Quintet op. 44, Quartetto d’archi della Scala (DECCA-2011)

. Brahms - Variations on a Theme by Händel op. 24, Variations on a Theme by Schumann op. 9, Variations on an Original Theme op. 21 No. 1, Variations on an Hungarian Theme op. 21 No. 2, Study from Schubert’s Impromptu op. 90 No. 2 (DECCA-2011)

 

Some of his interpretations are included by Deutsche Grammophon in Piano Gold (2010) and in Classica 2011, by DECCA in 50 Piano Masters (2012), by Brilliant Classics in The Ultimate Piano Concerto (2010) and in Romantic piano concertos (2016), some anthologies of the most important piano interpreters (Abbado, Argerich, Ashkenazy, Brendel, Chailly, Domingo, Michelangeli, Rattle, Richter, etc.).