Rana Shines

Talented Italian pianist Beatrice Rana brings her effortless skill to David Geffen Hall, performing Rachmaninoff's truly epic Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic. Composed between 1900 and 1901, the concerto was the first he wrote following a disastrous premiere of his First Symphony in 1897, which included a drunk conductor, an under-rehearsed orchestra and an emotional breakdown for Rachmaninoff, inflicting a period of creative block upon him. The resulting piano concerto, however, was one of the most stunning of all of his works, celebrated as a milestone in the composer's legacy.

Also to be performed is Tchaikovsky's marvelous Fifth Symphony, a true crowd pleaser for the breadth of its climactic flourishes, as well as the New York premiere of Katherine Balch's Musica Pyralis, co-commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony.