Sunday, December 28, 2025
7:00 PM
On WCRB In Concert with the Celebrity Series of Boston, pianist Beatrice Rana brings her storytelling prowess and emotional expressiveness to two well-loved ballet suites: Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker suite. Rana also brings her poetic touch to Debussy’s Études and the first of Prokofiev’s mighty “War Sonatas,” composed early in the Second World War.
Beatrice Rana, piano
Sergei PROKOFIEV Selections from "Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet," Op. 75
Claude DEBUSSY Études, Book 2
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY Selections from The Nutcracker suite, Op. 71a
PROKOFIEV Piano Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 82
Read program notes for this concert.
Learn more about the Celebrity Series of Boston.
This concert was recorded on November 8, 2025 at NEC's Jordan Hall.
In an interview with CRB's Brian McCreath, Beatrice Rana describes the connections among the different works in this program, the way Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 6 speaks to our world today, and the collaborative spirit of her latest recording, a collection of Bach concertos with Amsterdam Sinfonietta. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.
TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):
Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at New England Conservatory with Beatrice Rana, who is back in Boston for a beautiful recital. Beatrice, thank you for your time today. I appreciate it.
Beatrice Rana Oh, thank you, grazie.
Brian McCreath I'm so fascinated that you're starting this concert with music by Prokofiev and ending it with music by Prokofiev. I want to ask you about the relationship of those two sets of music, but before we get to all that, let's just take on these pieces one by one. Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet: first of all, just to clarify, these are Prokofiev's own arrangements or reductions of his score. Is that correct?
Beatrice Rana Yeah, that's absolutely correct, and that's what I find very fascinating about this music because I love the ballet and the suite from the orchestral version. But being that Prokofiev as such a wonderful pianist, his arrangement for the piano is so interesting and so full of colors for the piano. And it's a piece that I've loved for a long time, and somehow it made a lot of sense to put this in the program, with this very specific program, because it's a program made of contrasts. And on one hand there is, of course, Prokofiev with a very specific selection of pieces, which is Romeo and Juliet and the Sixth Sonata. The Sixth Sonata is the first of the "war sonatas," so in both pieces there is a lot of violence and brutality. And at the same time there is a lot of tenderness. And then this makes a lot of contrast with the other two pieces of the program, which are the Tchaikovsky Nutcracker and Debussy Etudes, which are meant to be like an homage to childhood. These pieces are written towards the end of his life, and I feel like this old man was looking back at childhood and to this dreamy attitude.
Brian McCreath I love hearing how you're connecting these pieces in your mind. That's wonderful. Just to get back to the Romeo and Juliet by itself for a second, is the ballet something that you have seen, and what does that do for your way of playing it if you have seen the ballet production or a ballet production of Romeo and Juliet?
Beatrice Rana Oh, I love to look at ballet productions. I actually played a lot of ballet music. I did the three Stravinsky ballets, The Rite [of Spring], Petrushka, and Firebird, and I collaborated myself with dancers. So, for me, it's very inspiring to watch always the ballet because the piano is such a versatile instrument. You can convey so many things into the sound of this wonderful instrument. So, it's not just the orchestra but it's also the movement and how it's meant to be played, this music. And when you see some great dancers approaching this music, it's even more revelatory because there is so much more into that.
Brian McCreath Now, sometimes in a ballet when the orchestra is playing, the tempo needs to be adjusted simply for the needs of the dancers, but you don't have that issue in playing Romeo and Juliet on its own in concert. So, do you find yourself sometimes thinking about those movements that you're describing, those ways that the ballet inspires you, but maybe actually taking a little bit of a different direction for musical purposes?
Beatrice Rana Yes, exactly. I think that that's exactly the point, because of course, when collaborating with dancers, they have another way of breathing, and they have so many movements, and accommodating these sometimes is difficult. So, to play everything on one instrument allows not to have any compromise on this, but at the same time to be really inspired by that kind of gesture that is meant to be in this music.
Brian McCreath The Debussy Etudes are pieces that have such a magical feeling about them, and yet he approached them as though they were really kind of, I guess, for lack of a better term, exercises for pianists to learn through, right? And so, tell me about your own past with these pieces, when you first approached them. Were they just exercises or training vehicles for you, or were they always considered from you to be concert material?
Beatrice Rana Oh you know, the word "etude" somehow implies a lack of musicality. And I think this is absolutely not true. And I first faced this already with... you know, in Italian conservatory you are forced to play so many Clementi etudes, and these are actually wonderful pieces of music. And later with the Chopin etudes, I thought, why should I approach this piece differently than preludes? I mean it's kind of the same thing. And in the direction I also approached the Debussy Etudes. The Debussy Etudes is a piece that I particularly love because it's not the typical Debussy. You expect Clair de Lune [Moonlight], and you expect La fille aux cheveux de lin [The Girl with the Flaxen Hair]. And these etudes are different because they arrive, as I said, at the end of his life, and the symbolism that he uses arrives in the extreme. So, there are, again, gestures of sound but very abstract. And that's why I say there is also a relationship to this dreamy childhood. You know, when you dream, dreams do not always make sense, but they are full of elements and symbols, and when you wake up you try to analyze, oh what did I dream? What does it mean? And I think it's exactly the same with these etudes.
Brian McCreath Well, tell me about that though, because, in any piano work there is the task of simply getting the technique under your fingers and understanding the mechanics of making it work. But then you have to elevate, and you're talking about elevating far above the technique to enter into the dream world almost. And so, how do you... Is it a matter of simply playing them repeatedly over and over so that you internalize them so much that you leave the technique behind in your mind? Or are there other ways that you enter that world?
Beatrice Rana Well, first of all, for me, technique has never been separated from music. Technique is at the service of music. And of course, the more you manage that, the more you can do. So, that's why it's very, very important to practice like crazy. But there are certain pieces where I feel that the technical difficulty is an obstacle that is meant to be there because the more you need to practice it, the more you spend time on this music. And then the more you get to be friendly. And you know, there are some pieces that are not friendly at the beginning. So, the more you spend time, the more you understand and the more you find a way with these pieces. So, I find this is the case.
Brian McCreath That's such a productive way of looking at your work, that when something is incredibly hard, it's not an obstacle, it's an invitation into the piece to spend more time with the piece, right?
Beatrice Rana Yeah, I think so. And that's why sometimes it's tricky the other way, when pieces are too easy technically and they are so difficult on the musical level. I think the highest example is Mozart. Like these slow movements by Mozart that look so, let's say, easy on the outside, and then they are so refined and so complicated, and everything should sound simple at the end. So, I think this is way more difficult.
Brian McCreath Well, it feels like we could all learn something from that, whether we play piano or not. Well, let's talk about Nutcracker. And again, I bet you've seen the ballet.
Beatrice Rana Of course. [laughs]
Brian McCreath [laughs] But tell me about specifically what Mikhail Pletnev is able to do. I mean, it's a brilliant, brilliant score, but what does Mikhail Pletnev do in order to translate it into the world of a solo pianist?
Beatrice Rana Well, I find that Pletnev's transcription is really genius because he has such a knowledge of piano and a knowledge of the orchestral score. So, his transcription is a joy for the hands of a pianist. It's always funny to put in a program two different pieces of ballet music, transcribed by the composer and by someone else. I remember very well when I was playing Petrushka, transcribed by Stravinsky, and [Stravinsky’s] The Firebird transcribed by [Guido] Agosti. And the approach was completely different. So, I would say that, again, with Pletnev, it's the transcription of a pianist, of a concert pianist, but also of a conductor and someone that has been on stage so much and somehow can translate all this message into the piano.
Brian McCreath Is Pletnev someone you've met?
Beatrice Rana No, unfortunately not. And I think this is the worst aspect of a musician's life, because you never meet each other. [laughs]
Brian McCreath [laughs] You do have incredibly difficult logistics in your life. There's no question. Well, I don't know how much of Nutcracker Pletnev transcribed. Did he transcribe the entire ballet?
Beatrice Rana No, it's just selections, and I'm just taking three pieces from this selection.
Brian McCreath Oh okay.
Beatrice Rana I have my symmetry in concert, so I just picked four pieces from Romeo and Juliet and three from The Nutcracker just to be fair with the two of them. [laughs]
Brian McCreath [laughs] Absolutely. Okay, now we get to get back to Prokofiev. You really spark my imagination here when you say that Pletnev transcribed in a way that a pianist would transcribe. Is Prokofiev a composer who would write for a pianist? I mean, he was such a brilliant pianist. Did he care what other people could or couldn't do with their own technique or their own interpretations?
Beatrice Rana Well, the fantastic thing of composers that were first of all great pianists is that they created new vocabularies for pianists. So, the world for a pianist hasn't been the same after Liszt and hasn't been the same after Rachmaninoff. So, there is a whole vocabulary of movement, Chopin and Prokofiev, and there are many others. They really created a language. And it doesn't mean that, because he was a pianist, then it's easy. It's actually very challenging. But it's challenging in a friendly way, I would say.
The Sixth Sonata, I love very much this piece. It was composed in 1940. So, this was a very difficult time for the world. And I think that the world we are living in now is not easy either, and that's why I wanted to play this music. Because there is always this question, is art for art's sake or not? And probably this program puts this question on stage because, well, we were talking about musicians' logistics. And I tell you my logistics have changed so much in the last years because of all this world change. And so, first of all, yes, I am a musician, but I'm also a citizen of the world. And this is not meant to be any kind of political approach. It's just as a human being in this world. And what I wanted to put into perspective was these two Prokofiev pieces, one at the beginning and one at the end. Of course, there is the sonata, which is the highest contrast. It's the only piece by Prokofiev where it's written col pugno, so it's really with the whole hand, brutally on the keyboard, smashing the keys. But the first piece, the Romeo and Juliet, is a tragedy also, but it's a familiar tragedy. And there are these two families that basically don't understand each other. So yes, it's true that sometimes we feel too small to change the world and we feel useless in a way, but I don't think so. Because everyone can make a difference. And violence and lack of understanding starts inside the family, inside the close ones. And I think this could be already a small step to make the world a bit better.
Brian McCreath I love this way of looking at this sonata because, so many times if we talk about this sonata, it's in the historical terms of when it was written and who Prokofiev was at the time. And that's all fair. That's all just fine, except now you're relating the way that this music comes to us to our own world today. And there are some very fearsome parts of this sonata, particularly the first movement, and then somewhat returning in the last movement. And in between, there's such gentleness and beauty. And I wonder how you see, especially, those middle parts of this sonata, whether they are relief from that more fearsome part, or whether they are in some way in denial? Do you see the difference between those two ideas? I mean, how do these middle parts of the sonata form your overall conception of it?
Beatrice Rana Well, I think we can understand very well now because even though there is brutality in the world, that doesn't mean that the world is ugly, because there is a lot of beauty in the world, and there is beauty in the innocence of kids walking in the streets, and I think of this beautiful second movement that is so childish in a way, or there is so much love and heartfelt tenderness in the third movement. And that's why I wanted to play this piece, because it's not just being ugly and difficult, but it's a picture of the whole world and it shows that there is always something good, even in the most terrible time.
Brian McCreath That is so beautiful. I love that. That is really wonderful.
I don't know and you don't even have to tell me what encore might come after Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata, but how do you even begin to think of what encore might come after the Sixth Sonata?
Beatrice Rana Oh, I tell you, this is the worst nightmare. [laughs] Because whenever I think of a program, it takes me so long to create a program because I want to tell a story through these pieces.
Brian McCreath That's very clear.
Beatrice Rana Yeah, and then once the program is settled in my head and I'm thinking, oh my god, I have to play an encore and I'm just devastated. [laughs]
Brian McCreath Well, you don't have to reveal anything, but that's very illuminating. Thank you.
This will sound like I'm purely trying to butter you up. I promise I'm not. I love your Goldberg Variations recording. It's seriously one of my... I love listening to different recordings. Yours is the one I turn to at least as much as any other. I really do love it. So, I was so thrilled that earlier this year you released more music by Bach in the collection of concertos that you did with Amsterdam Sinfonietta. And I was so touched reading what you wrote in the release about working on this with your father. And you drew the parallel to Bach's own family, I think, at least a little bit subtly. So, tell me about how Bach's own story of his family and his work informs the way that you might approach these concertos.
Beatrice Rana Well, I tell you, I think that in every family there is a personal language. And I was born in a pianists' family. Both my parents are pianists. And my father is an opera choir repetiteur, so he works with a lot of singers and Verdi and Puccini, and, you know, it's a South Italian opera theater, so there is a lot of Italian bel canto. And he loves that, but I always remember that after every production, the day after he needed to kind of clean his soul and his ears, he would spend the day playing Bach. So, for me that has been always part of the family routine, this Bach process. And as a young pianist, I was very much attracted by Bach. And that's why, when I was young, I was really practicing so much Bach, my teacher was desperate because he was like, it's okay Bach, but we need to do also other stuff. [laughs] And so that's why I always felt this personality very close. Also because you know, we look at Bach as a god, and in a way he is. But if we think of his life, his life was of such a simple man, a church man with a lot of kids. And going to the church every day, he never left his region in Germany. There were other composers traveling all around Europe, but he never left there. So, he had such a simple life, and despite this there is the whole universe in his music, and that's what attracted me immensely. And that's why I always try to get back to Bach once in a while, because for me it's necessary.
Brian McCreath And what strikes me in this recording is that you fully live into the possibilities of the piano. And you write about that a little too, that this is meant to take the piano, as you hope Bach would appreciate it, and do everything you can with it. And so I want to get at the fact that you were also the director of the ensemble for this. And when I listen to this recording, I hear such nuance. I mean, I would put it this way: you could probably go around this conservatory right now, gather up 20 string players, go on the stage, and you could play these concertos with really good players, and they would sound terrific. But you've done something beyond that with this recording that offers such nuance and such soft s,ensitivity in the slow movements and such fiery energy in the fast movements. So tell me about directing the ensemble and what that was like for this particular recording.
Beatrice Rana Well, I have to say that I was very, very lucky to make this recording with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. This orchestra is absolutely amazing and their leader, Candida Thompson, she's wonderful. And what I love very much about this whole process is that we had so many rehearsals, which never happens. And so we had time to play and discuss, and also I liked very much the democracy of this orchestra. Everyone could suggest an idea. And that's why I think that there is this special vibe in the performance. Also, this performance was made at the end of a very long tour where we could really get to know each other and experiment. And so this is also something that was very special in this recording. There were a lot of experiments during the recording sessions. So this allowed me to not put my idea above every other musician, but to share it and to be enriched by the others, which I find is so beautiful.
Brian McCreath Well, I mean it shows, first of all, in the recording itself. Also, I think that, getting back to your words, we don't know a lot about what Bach thought, but I've got to think that he would have certainly appreciated the way you're describing this. I mean, I can't imagine that that's not how he often did music himself when these concertos were performed.
You talked about the way your father would deprogram after the opera with Bach and how Bach was always part of what you wanted to practice. Tell me about whether Bach's other works that don't involve harpsichord or keyboard, the choral works, the violin, how much does that sit in your mind while you play these concertos?
Beatrice Rana Well, a lot because of course a lot of these concerti were taken by something else. There are pieces from cantatas and violin concerti. So, I think this gives also an idea of Bach as an artisan. Not just this godly composer, but someone that's had so many papers around him and it was, ah, okay, I might use this. And this is very inspiring because of course there are like the E major concerto is so inspired by the violin, I couldn't think of that theme not being played with a bow. And that's why I thought, why am I not allowed to play this on the piano if he was himself changing instruments for the very same music? So that's why I felt very encouraged to do that.
Brian McCreath I think that's a very fair point. Absolutely.
Beatrice Rana, I'm so glad you're back in Boston. Audiences here in Boston should hear you as often as possible. And maybe more if we're luckier than we have been. So, thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it.
Beatrice Rana Thank you. Very, very happy to be in Boston.