Beatrice Rana has been playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 since she was 15—about half of her life. The piece is especially challenging because the composer didn’t write idiomatically for the piano. “There are these amazing passages where the piano is just fighting with the orchestra, and the massive sonorities that come out are just incredible,” Rana says.

“It’s also a very theatrical work, and you can see the strong influence of the ballet in this concerto, the lightness and the fun that comes, for instance, from the second movement.” Playing the same music over and over could become routine, but, the pianist explains, “it’s never the case with Tchaikovsky, because I enjoy so much playing this concerto with different orchestras and different conductors. Every time I get to see something new!”