Born in 1967, Paolo Restani studied the piano with Vincenzo Vitale, Gerhard Oppitz and Peter Lang and composition with Bruno Bettinelli and Paolo Arcà.

Restani’s talent was evident at a very early age and he performed his first recital when he was only twelve years old. When he was sixteen, the great artistic director Francesco Siciliani invited him to play at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. His debut - an extraordinary success - was immediately followed by invitations to perform in some of Italy’s most prestigious theatres.

During his career, which started over twenty-five years ago, he has performed in many of the most important musical centres around the world. His technical mastery of the piano and profound interpretations, which aim at rendering every minor detail of a score perfectly clear and perceptible, make him an excellent performer, especially in the Romantic repertoire, in which his virtuoso skills are naturally reminiscent of some of the greatest names in the world and tradition of piano-playing. After a recital which he gave in Frankfurt in 1996, the Allgemeine Zeitung suggested that, “...in his rendering of Chopin’s compositions, his affinity with Vladimir Horowitz is quite surprising in relation to the timbre, richness of colour and the clarity of the melodies...”.

In June 2004, his debut with the Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro alla Scala conducted by Riccardo Muti (Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto) was unanimously acclaimed with great enthusiasm.
In addition, still under Muti's direction, in 2008, he is soloist in a symphonic production of Lélio ou Le Retour à la Vie, op. 14b by Berlioz, together with Gérard Depardieu (as narrator), Mario Zeffiri (tenor) and the Orchestra Luigi Cherubini, the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor.

Recitals given in recent seasons include the following venues (and events): the Großer Musikvereinsaal in Vienna, the Great Hall of the Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Colon and Coliseo Theatres in Buenos Aires, the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz, London, Brussels, Moscow, Frankfurt, Innsbruck, Santiago in Chile, Montevideo, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Comunale in Florence, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Arena Foundation in Verona, the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, the Amici della Musica in Florence, the Unione Musicale in Turin, the Serate Musicali in Milan, the Società dei Concerti in Milan, the Amici della Musica in Palermo, the Amici della Musica in Perugia, the Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti in Rome, the Auditorium of the Parco della Musica in Rome and the Concerti del Quirinale.

Prestigious music festivals he has been invited to on a regular basis include: the Flanders Festival, the “Martha Argerich” Festival in Buenos Aires, the Ravenna Festival, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the Settembre Musica in Turin, the “Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli” International Piano Festival in Brescia and Bergamo, the Festival Verdi in Parma, the “Uto Ughi per Roma” Festival, the Panatenee Pompeiane, the Romaeuropa Festival, the Todi Arte Festival, the Ravello Festival, the Ljubljana Festival, the Oviedo Jornadas Internacionales de Piano and the Asturias Festival.
In January 2008 he was invited by Yuri Temirkanov to the XVII International Festival “Christmas musical meetings in Palmira of the north” in Saint Petersburg.

Restani has also played as a soloist with: the Münchner Symphoniker, the Stuttgarter Philarmoniker, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, the St. Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, the Simfonicni Orkester RTV Slovenija, the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Chile, the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker String Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI (the Italian National Broadcasting Company), the Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Orchestra del Teatro Regio in Turin, the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Orchestra dell’Arena in Verona, the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale in Bologna, the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and the Orchestra del Teatro Verdi in Trieste. Amongst various other music directors, he has performed with Roberto Abbado, Gerd Albrecht, Piero Bellugi, Yoram David, Vladimir Delman, Claus Peter Flor, Lu Jia, Gerard Korsten, Julian Kavatchev, Gustav Kuhn, Yoel Levi, John Nelson, John Neschling, Gunter Neuhold, Daniel Oren and Donato Renzetti.

In 2005, during his 4th South American tour, he has been awarded with the "Argentina Critics Award" as best classic music soloist of the year.

A versatile musician and fully aware of the integration possible between various art forms, he has performed as ‘co-protagonist’ in theatrical productions in which he accompanied artists such as Carla Fracci, Sylvie Guillelme, Laurent Hilaire, Enrico Maria Salerno, Simona Marchini, Gottfried Wagner. In 2007 he has been solidifying his artistic partnership with Chiara Muti: they have created three original musical plays on the life of Mozart, on the Wagner-Ludwig II relationship, on Rachmaninov-Gogol.

A fan of chamber music, he has played with the Fonè Quartet, the David Quarter and cellist Andrea Noferini, the violist Simonide Braconi and he has accompanied Monica Bacelli, Guillemette Laurens and Claire Brua in lieder cycles.

His repertoire ranges from Bach to present-day composers, with a preference for the great cycles of masterpieces of the Romantic Period and the 19th century such as the Chopin’s Études, Brahms’s complete piano-works, Scriabin’s Studies and the complete works for piano and orchestra by Beethoven, Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky. 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.

CD recordings include:
Liszt - Totentanz for piano and orchestra, with the European Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Peter Jan Marthé (Polyglobe-1997); Liszt - the twelve Études d’Exécution Trascendante and the Concert Études (Amadeus-2004); Rachmaninov - eighteen Preludes (Amadeus-2008); Casella – Scarlattiana, Triplo Concerto, A notte alta for piano and orchestra, with the Orchestra “Filarmonica ‘900” of the Teatro Regio di Torino conducted by Marzio Conti (Brilliant Classic-2008); Brahms, Godowski, Skriabin, Saint-Saëns, Bartok, Liszt, Sancan - pieces for the left hand alone (DECCA-2009); Berlioz - Lélio ou Le Retour à la vie op. 14b, conductor Riccardo Muti, Orchestra Luigi Cherubini, Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, Gérard Depardieu as narrator, Mario Zeffiri tenor (CD and Dvd Gruppo Editoriale L’espresso-2009); John Field - the seven Concertos for piano and orchestra with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice conducted by Marco Guidarini (4 CDs Brilliant Classic); Brahms - Variations on a theme by Paganini op. 35, Variations from String Sextet op. 18, Five Studies (DECCA-2010).
Next recordings releasing will be:
Preludes, Transcriptions and Sonata no. 2 op. 36 by Rachmaninov (Amadeus); the complete works for piano solo by Johannes Brahms (7 CDs DECCA); Schumann and Brahms Quintet with the Quartetto d’archi della Scala (DECCA).

last update: March, 2010