This concert brings the mini-series 'Busoni - The Romantic Modernist' to its epic conclusion. Whilst the opening phrases of Busoni's 1904 Piano Concerto conjure up the memory of his mentor Brahms, this is in fact the kind of concerto that his friend Mahler might have written. Lasting well over an hour, it steers a deft path between monumental Teutonic architecture and Latin temperament (including a frenzied visit to the hubbub of the Neapolitan streets), before concluding with a hymn to Allah, by a Danish poet, sung by an off-stage male voice chorus!
Unapologetically immoderate, especially in the demands upon the soloist, this is a rare chance to hear a work which has received only one London performance in the last 30 years. The evening begins with music by Rachmaninoff, Busoni’s pianist-composer rival. The Symphonic Dances, rich with yearning for Pre-Revolutionary Russia, were considered by the composer to be his magnum opus.
