Piano Concerto (Busoni)
| Piano Concerto | |
|---|---|
| by Ferruccio Busoni | |
The composer in 1905, soon after completing the concerto
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| Key | C major |
| Catalogue | |
| Based on |
Aladdin by Adam Oehlenschläger |
| Composed | 1901–04 |
| Performed | November 10, 1904: Berlin |
| Published | 1906 by Breitkopf & Härtel |
| Duration | 70 min |
| Movements | 5 |
| Scoring |
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The Piano Concerto in C major, Op. 39 (BV 247), by Ferruccio Busoni, is one of the largest works ever written in this genre. The concerto lasts around 70 minutes and is in five movements; in the final movement a male chorus sings words from the final scene of the verse drama Aladdin by Adam Oehlenschläger, who also wrote the words of one of the Danish national anthems.
It seems to have been Beethoven who first included a chorus in a concerted work with piano and orchestra, in his Choral Fantasy, Op. 80, of 1808; since then only a handful of works have been scored for similar forces, including Daniel Steibelt's Piano Concerto No. 8 (first performed March 16, 1820, in Saint Petersburg) and the Piano Concerto No. 6, Op. 192 (1858) by Henri Herz which also have a choral finale.
Busoni intended to dedicate the concerto to his friend William Dayas, but he died in 1903. His daughter Karin Dayas gave the first American performance of the concerto in 1932.
The first performance of the concerto took place in the Beethoven-Saal, Berlin, Germany, on November 10, 1904, at one of Busoni's own concerts of modern music. Busoni was the soloist, with Karl Muck conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Choir of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche). The reviews were decidedly mixed, some being filled with outright hostility or derision. The century following its premiere has seen relatively few performances, owing to the large orchestration, complex musical texture, the use of a male chorus, and the staggering demands put on the soloist.
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