Beatrice Rana Plays Brahms

Beatrice Rana captivated audiences in 2023 with her outstanding virtuosity and explosive energy as she joined the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft in Rachmaninov’s notoriously demanding Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. She now returns for two concerts this season – one with the orchestra and, later in the spring, a solo recital.

In this first concert, she takes on Brahms’s grand Second Piano Concerto – music that was already a great success at its premiere, with Brahms himself as soloist. For him, it was a welcome vindication, as his First Piano Concerto had not been a success.

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is led by Manfred Honeck, who, together with Thomas Ille, has also created the symphonic suite from Richard Strauss’s opera Elektra. In this richly varied and vividly coloured music, we hear Elektra’s longing for her murdered father, the nightmares of her mother Klytämnestra, and the return of her brother Orestes reflected in the passionate and deeply expressive melodies of the strings.