Busoni - Piano Concerto - Ohlsson, Cleveland Orchestra, von Dohnanyi

Ferruccio Busoni

Piano Concerto in C Major

Garrick Ohlsson (Piano) 

Christoph von Dohnanyi 

The Cleveland Orchestra and Men's Chorus

1.I. Prologo e Introito: Allegro, dolce e solenne

2.II. Pezzo giocoso: Vivacemente, ma senza fretta 3.III. Pezzo serioso: Andante sostenuto, pensoso 4.IV. All' Italiana: Vivace Christoph von 

5.V. Cantico: Largamente, piu moderato

Ferruccio Busoni's Piano Concerto in C Major is a work of monumental proportions. Five movements long, timing at about 72 minutes total; this is the epitome of grandiose romanticism.

The work has 5 movements: Prologue and Introit, Joyous piece, Serious Piece, Italiana, and Cantico. The music is completely tonal, just with large proportions. The opening movement is expansive; the huge chords in the piano which occur after an orchestral introduction show right off the bat, Busoni's love of low and thick textures, and the diametrically opposed chords versus scales and arpeggios. The second and fourth movements are the scherzo's of the work. Both pieces (but the fourth movement especially so), show the virtuosity needed by the pianist. The fourth movement features a brisk Italian folk dance, featuring not only the virtuosity of the pianist, but of the orchestra as well. The 23 minute 3rd movement is epic. While it starts on the lyrical side, the movement as a whole is aggressive, and like the 1st movement, rather expansive. The final movement features a part for men's chorus as well as piano and orchestral forces. The movement is ethereal in nature, however, the work ends rather forcefully. The epic work gets an epic conclusion.

The music is exciting, often recalling Mahler. The Italian influence is only really noticeable in the fourth movement, but giving the piece a unique flavor. He favors the low and middle ranges of the piano, giving much of the music a powerful texture. His writing displays a lot of chorale-like settings and virtuosic scales and arpeggio passages. While it is easy to grasp Busoni's preferred formula, it creates nice uniformity and consistency throughout. Garrick Ohlsson is marvelous here. A virile, yet clean, performance throughout, the piano is almost always in the forefront. The orchestra plays well and handles the virtuosic fourth movement in stride. The chorus is OK. This digital recording from 1989 remains the preferred performance to this day, and if you want to experience something different in the piano concerto arena, this is a neat diversion.

Read Alex Ross article about this concerto HERE