Busoni

[ahinton]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084cpk8#play

I was astonished to hear of the Piano Concerto being described as 80 minutes long. Most performances and recordings are around the 70 minute mark! There was one recording that distended it to almost 90, about which the less said the better...

Any thoughts?

[Bryn]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084cpk8#play

Any thoughts?

It prompted me to order a copy of the EMI CD of the Donohoe/Elder Prom performance of the Piano Concerto. I haver a few others but the recommendation was hard to resist. In now see it can be sampled in a lossy codec manifestation on YouTube:

[peterthekeys]

I was working when it came on, so I was only able to listen to it with half an ear. But I found it very interesting (Busoni is high on my list of composers whose music I want to investigate in more depth, and I'm always intrigued by his music when I do get chance to hear it.) I'll give it another listen in the near future. It would have been nice to have had a few more (and longer) musical examples, and rather less chit-chat (but that's obviously a standing criticism.) (I think that it was Sorabji's essay on Busoni in "Around Music" which first aroused my interest - I've always found that if Sorabji admired something, then it was a powerful recommendation.)

[ahinton]

I was working when it came on, so I was only able to listen to it with half an ear. But I found it very interesting (Busoni is high on my list of composers whose music I want to investigate in more depth, and I'm always intrigued by his music when I do get chance to hear it.) I'll give it another listen in the near future. It would have been nice to have had a few more (and longer) musical examples, and rather less chit-chat (but that's obviously a standing criticism.) (I think that it was Sorabji's essay on Busoni in "Around Music" which first aroused my interest - I've always found that if Sorabji admired something, then it was a powerful recommendation.)

Yes, the music examples were almost sickeningly truncated but I couldn't help thinking that it's taken just over 8 months for BBC to recognise the composer's 150th anniversary and do something about it (his birthday was 1 April, as coincidentally was Rachmaninoff's). I remember once discussing Busoni with Sorabji who held him in reverence (he met him only once in London in 1919 and played to him an early piano sonata of his own that he asked Busoni to help him get published, which it eventually was as his Piano Sonata No. 1, although it's not actually his first). When Sorabji assured me that he was convinced that there would never be a "fashion" in or for Busoni's work, I asked him if he nevertheless thought that Busoni's time would eventually come; he said "I really don't know - but it might and it certainly should!". Busoni supposedly - and rather ruefully - told his friend van Dieren that publishers accepted his music because of his fame as a pianist and it was certainly as a pianist that he was by far the most widely respected during his all too short life.

[ahinton]

It prompted me to order a copy of the EMI CD of the Donohoe/Elder Prom performance of the Piano Concerto. I haver a few others but the recommendation was hard to resist. In now see it can be sampled in a lossy codec manifestation on YouTube:

I cannot imagine you being disappointed with that! The best recordings that I've heard are this one, the Ogdon and the Hamelin, though the Ogdon sadly suffers from some inferior orchestral playing. I've also heard Carlo Grante in a splendid live performance of it but he's yet to record the work.

[Beef Oven!]

I bought this CD in 2013 to put a wrong right (I’d never really listened to Busoni). As wonderful as it might be, I still struggle with the work - rarely listening beyond the first movement (2nd mvt just begun as I type!). Even on my limited experience, I would recommend this performance without question.

[ahinton]

I bought this CD in 2013 to put a wrong right (I’d never really listened to Busoni). As wonderful as it might be, I still struggle with the work - rarely listening beyond the first movement (2nd mvt just begun as I type!). Even on my limited experience, I would recommend this performance without question.

It's a fine one, without doubt (and see from the front which piano he wisely used for it!); I still prefer Ogdon (despite the far less fine orchestral playing) as well as Donohoe and Hamelin (each conducted by Elder), but this one's certainly well worth having in a collection. I hope that you get around to listening to it all!

[Beef Oven!]

It's a fine one, without doubt (and see from the front which piano he wisely used for it!); I still prefer Ogdon (despite the far less fine orchestral playing) as well as Donohoe and Hamelin (each conducted by Elder), but this one's certainly well worth having in a collection. I hope that you get around to listening to it all!

I ended up listening to it all the way through. I enjoyed it. On paper, it sounds as if it’s going to be OTT, but it’s not at all. I’ll definitely be returning to it.

[ahinton]

I ended up listening to it all the way through. I enjoyed it. On paper, it sounds as if it’s going to be OTT, but it’s not at all. I’ll definitely be returning to it.

Great! What even Peter Donohoe - who's been deeply committed to the work for at least 30 years - describes as OTT and even vulgar in the fourth movement seems somehow to integrate into the fabric of the entire work so as never to stick out like a sore thumb or an Ivesian confrontation of opposites. Mark Elder and Fabio Luisi are two conductors whom I know of who have conducted the concerto with different pianists (I heard the latter live in Rome with Carlo Grante as soloist several years ago).

I once told someone that when I heard the title The Piano Concerto I naturally assumed that this was the work being referred to rather than the one by Mr Nyman; likewise, I have been known (admitted partly in jest) to refer to the Busoni as The Italian Concerto...

It's a pity indeed that its sheer size and scope, the male chorus (who have to wait around an hour for their big moment) and the not inconsiderable demands on the pianist have between them contrived to keep the work off the concert platform only to be brought out of hiding on "special occasions", because it is by nature so very much a "standard repertoire" concerto in all the best senses of the phrase.

[Beef Oven!]

Great! What even Peter Donohoe - who's been deeply committed to the work for at least 30 years - describes as OTT and even vulgar in the fourth movement seems somehow to integrate into the fabric of the entire work so as never to stick out like a sore thumb or an Ivesian confrontation of opposites. Mark Elder and Fabio Luisi are two conductors whom I know of who have conducted the concerto with different pianists (I heard the latter live in Rome with Carlo Grante as soloist several years ago).

I once told someone that when I heard the title The Piano Concerto I naturally assumed that this was the work being referred to rather than the one by Mr Nyman; likewise, I have been known (admitted partly in jest) to refer to the Busoni as The Italian Concerto...

It's a pity indeed that its sheer size and scope, the male chorus (who have to wait around an hour for their big moment) and the not inconsiderable demands on the pianist have between them contrived to keep the work off the concert platform only to be brought out of hiding on "special occasions", because it is by nature so very much a "standard repertoire" concerto in all the best senses of the phrase.

I had no idea that anyone had actually described it as OTT, it just looks that way on paper. Its realisation in the performance that I have on CD, firmly contradicts that view.

[pastoralguy]

And let's not forget the contribution made by the late, great Mr. John Ogdon!

[ahinton]

And let's not forget the contribution made by the late, great Mr. John Ogdon!

No, indeed; I for one couldn't possibly forget that!

[ahinton]

I had no idea that anyone had actually described it as OTT, it just looks that way on paper. Its realisation in the performance that I have on CD, firmly contradicts that view.

Indeed. PD didn't mean that the entire work was OTT, of course - just parts of the fourth movement - but boy, does he play it for all it's worth!

[Beef Oven!]

Indeed. PD didn't mean that the entire work was OTT, of course - just parts of the fourth movement - but boy, does he play it for all it's worth!

Well I’m giving a shout for Garrick Ohlsson!

[ahinton]

Well I’m giving a shout for Garrick Ohlsson!

Well good for you! The orchestral playing on that recording's very good, too.