Piano Concerto (Busoni)

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.

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).^[1] The reviews were decidedly mixed, some being filled with outright hostility or derision.^[2] 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.

The inclusion of a chorus in a piano concerto was unusual, although Daniel Steibelt's Piano Concerto No. 8 (1st performed March 16, 1820, in Saint Petersburg)^[3] and the Piano Concerto No. 6, Op. 192 (1858) by Henri Herz^[4] both have a choral finale. The 1808 Choral Fantasy, Op. 80 by Beethoven includes a choral finale, but until that point it has the appearance of a work for piano and orchestra.

Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for a large orchestra.^[5][6][7][1] (For the instrumentation in Italian see below.)

Woodwinds 1 Piccolo (4th movement only) 3 Flutes (3rd doubling piccolo in 2nd and 4th movements) 3 Oboes (3rd doubling cor anglais in 2nd, 3rd and 5th movements) 3 Clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet in 2nd and 3rd movements) 3 Bassoons Brass 4 Horns 3 Trumpets 3 Trombones 1 Tuba Percussion 3 Timpani 3 additional percussion players:[8] Glockenspiel (4th and 5th movements) Triangle (2nd, 4th and 5th movemens) Tambourine (2nd and 4th movements) Military drum (4th movement only) Bass Drum (2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th movements) Cymbals (2nd, 4th and 5th movements) Tam-tam (3rd movement only)

Piano solo     Male Chorus (5th movement only; invisible) 8 Tenors I 8 Tenors II 8 Baritones I 8 Baritones II 8 Basses I 8 Basses II     Strings 12 Violins I 10 Violins II 8 Violas 8 Violoncellos 6 Double basses (4-string) 2 Double basses (5-string)[9]

Movements

Although the five movements are laid out separately in the score, Busoni stated that the concerto should be played as a continuous whole, without breaks.^[10]

I. Prologo e Introito: Allegro, dolce e solenne

II. Pezzo giocoso

III. Pezzo serioso:

Introductio: Andante sostenuto

Prima pars: Andante, quasi adagio

Altera pars: Sommessamente

Ultima pars: a tempo

IV. All'Italiana: Tarantella: Vivace; In un tempo

V. Cantico: Largamente (with chorus)

The first movement, marked "Prologo e introito" is a little over fifteen minutes long on average, and is a broad Allegro movement which features a clangorous piano part.

The second movement, a kind of Scherzo, is mostly a light-fingered affair for the piano that makes use of "Italianate" rhythms and melodic material, even if the melodies are more evocative of Italian popular music than actual quotations from indigenous Italian folk music.

The third and longest movement is the "Pezzo serioso", a massive meditation and exploration in four parts in the key of D flat major which has a central climax that is once again pianistically challenging and brilliantly scored for both the piano and the orchestra.

The fourth movement "All' Italiana", is perhaps the most variegated in its use of the orchestra, with a terrifically virtuosic piano part, arguably more difficult than anything that has come before it in the work. There are also two cadenzas to this movement - one, included in the printed score; the other, an insert in the two-piano score that is an amplification of the one printed in the two-piano edition.

The final movement, "Cantico" with male chorus, brings full circle many themes that have been heard earlier in the work. The words sung by the chorus are from the final scene of Oehlenschläger's verse drama Aladdin.

Busoni and Aladdin

Adam Oehlenschläger's verse drama Aladdin, or the Magic Lamp was first published in Danish in 1805.^[11] Afterward, in 1806, Oehlenschläger spent several months in Weimar with Goethe, who was in the process of completing the final version of Part I of Faust. Subsequently Oehlenschläger decided to prepare a German edition of Aladdin, translating and revising the work himself and adding an explanatory introduction for his intended German readers. This edition was published in 1808 in Amsterdam.^[12] The new version included a special dedicatory poem To Goethe and was split into two parts, intended to be given on two successive evenings. More especially, this version had a new finale differing considerably from the original Danish edition by having various magical scenic transformations.^[13]

Busoni was quite taken with this early German version of Aladdin and planned to adapt it as a one-evening work. In a letter to his wife, dated London, February 10, 1902, Busoni wrote:

I have thought it out and decided not to use Oehlenschläger's Aladdin for an opera, but to write a composition in which drama music, dancing and magic are combined – cut down for one evening's performance if possible. It is my old idea of a play with music where it is necessary, without hampering the dialogue. As a spectacle and as a deep symbolic work it might be something similar to the Magic Flute; at the same time it would have a better meaning and an indestructible subject [mit besserem Sinn und einem nicht tot zu machenden Sujet]. Besides this, I have planned 6 works for the summer, the principal one being the pianoforte Concerto. How beautiful!^[14]

However, Busoni never completed his adaptation of Aladdin,^[15] although he did compose music for the final chorus in the magic cave; this soon made its way into the Piano Concerto. As Busoni's biographer Edward J. Dent remarks:

One may indeed wonder why an essentially Italian work should end with verses in praise of Allah. The plain fact was that Busoni at the moment happened to be interested in Aladdin and had set the final chorus to music. When he planned the Concerto he saw that this chorus, which has something of the mystical character of the concluding stanzas of Goethe's Faust, was exactly the music to give the general sense of serenity that he required for his own finale. It was from the original Aladdin chorus that he took the theme which occurs in the first movement; when he came to write out the last movement he felt that he missed the words, and therefore directed that a chorus of men's voices should sing them.^[16]

Hebt zu der ewigen Kraft eure Herzen; Fühlet euch Allah nah', schaut seine Tat! Wechseln im Erdenlicht Freuden und Schmerzen; Ruhig hier stehen die Pfeiler der Welt. Tausend und Tausend und abermals tausende Jahre so ruhig wie jetzt in der Kraft, Blitzen gediegen mit Glanz und mit Festigkeit, Die Unverwüstlichkeit stellen sie dar. Herzen erglüheten, Herzen erkalteten, Spielend umwechselten Leben und Tod. Aber in ruhigen Harren sie dehnten sich Herrlich, kräftiglich, früh so wie spät. Hebt zu der ewigen Kraft eure Herzen Fühlet euch Allah nah', schaut seine Tat! Vollends belebet ist jetzo die tote Welt. Preisend die Göttlichkeit, schweigt das Gedicht![17]

Lift up your hearts to the power eternal, Feel Allah's presence, behold all his works! Joy and pain interweave in the light of the world; The world's (mighty) pillars stand peacefully here. Thousands and thousands and once again thousands Of years - serene in their power as now - Flash by purely with radiance and strength, They display the Indestructible. Hearts glowed (so brightly), hearts became colder. Playfully interchanged Life and Death. But in a peaceful awaiting they stretch out, Glorious, powerfully, early and late. Lift up your hearts to the power eternal, Feel Allah's presence, behold all his works! The inanimate world is now consummately animate. In praise of Divinity, the poem falls quiet![18]

The words appear at the very end of the final scene of Aladdin, sung by a distant Chorus; Busoni follows the text exactly, only omitting a few verses which were not appropriate.^[19] As Oehlenschläger stated in his introduction to the 1808 version of Aladdin, he was not a native speaker of German; he admitted to incorporating various Danish modes of expression (Danismen) into his translation.^[20] This may go some way towards explaining the somewhat obscure - if exalted - nature of the words that Busoni uses.

Oehlenschläger's "unidiomatic and erroneous" use of German had hindered the play's success.^[13] In preparing a later German edition (1820 at the latest), he made a large number of changes and minor improvements, also correcting his imperfect German: but he dropped the magical 1808 ending, reverting to the original Danish 1805 finale.^[21] The first complete English translation, by Theodore Martin, published in 1863,^[22] is also based on a later edition, thus the first editions in German are the only ones to incorporate the words which Busoni uses.

According to Dent:

"The actual meaning of the words hardly matters. The chorus is directed to be invisible; it sings in plain chords, like a body of soft trombones added to the orchestra. The effect which Busoni desired was stated by him once in a letter to a friend who had mistakenly suggested to him that it might be better to re-write the chorus for mixed voices; he replied that he had no desire to convert his Concerto into an oratorio; he insisted that the chorus should be invisible, and said that its function was 'to add a new register to the sonorities which precede it'."^[23]

Dent's assertion that "The actual meaning of the words hardly matters" should be balanced against Aladdin's subsequent speech (not set by Busoni in the concerto) as he looks around the magic cave for the last time:

Hier ging ich als ein Knabe, da mir noch Selbst von den Innern nur die Außenseite Ins Auge fiel. Ein guter Geist beglückte Mein Leben, schenkte mir ein starkes Mittel, Um mich durch diese Endlichkeit zu kämpfen Zum ew'gen Gipfel. Ha, da steh' ich nun! Wohlan, so will ich auf die Ewigkeit Auch ferner einzig und allein vertrauen.[24]

I came here as a boy, when as yet Only the exterior of my inward being Caught my eye. A good spirit charmed My life, bestowed upon me a powerful means By which to struggle through this finitude Towards the eternal peak. Ha, there I stand now! Well then, in Eternity I will furthermore Exclusively and solely place my trust.

Problems of performance

Apart from the immense demands required of the soloist and the large forces needed, there is a further difficulty that can affect performances of this work: the role of the soloist.

As Busoni himself wrote, piano concertos tended to be modelled after either Mozart or Beethoven.^[25] In Mozart's case, the concerto centres around the spotlit virtuoso composer-performer, who appears to spontaneously create the work before us, on-stage. The orchestra mostly provides a background accompaniment. But with Beethoven, the work is often conceived in symphonic terms; the piano takes the secondary role, reflecting on or responding to ideas that have already been introduced by the orchestra (excepting the fourth piano concerto).^[26]

Busoni combined both these precedents in the Piano Concerto, Op. 39, creating a huge work of symphonic proportions which was originally accused of having only a piano obbligato.^[25] The work presents exceptional challenges for the soloist, who is often nevertheless required to incorporate a glittering cascade of notes into the overall orchestral sound. This self-abasement of the familiar 19th-century heroic soloist's role thus requires careful consideration of balance in performance. But as Dent comments:

Despite the incredible difficulty of the solo part, Busoni's concerto at no point offers a display of virtuosity. Even its cadenzas are subsidiary episodes. At the same time the pianoforte hardly ever presents a single theme in its most immediate and commanding shape. It is nearly always the orchestra which seems to be possessed of the composer's most prophetic inspiration. Busoni sits at the pianoforte, listens, comments, decorates, and dreams.^[27]

Performances

Recordings

Recording Date	Pianist	Conductor	Orchestra	Label & Cat. No.
1932-06-22 June 22, 1932	Petri Egon Petri	RosbaudHans Rosbaud	Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra	Arbiter 134 (fourth movement only)
1948-01-00 January 1948	Mewton-Wood Noel Mewton-Wood	Beecham Sir Thomas Beecham	BBC Symphony Orchestra	Somm-Beecham 15
1956-01-16 January 15–16, 1956	Johansen Gunnar Johansen	Schmidt Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt	NDR Symphony Orchestra	Music & Arts CD-1163
1967-00-00 1967	Ogdon John Ogdon	Revenaugh Daniell Revenaugh[28]	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra	EMI Classics 94637246726
1985-02-28 February 28, 1985	Bloch Boris Bloch	Eschenbach Christoph Eschenbach	Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra	Aperto APO 86106
1986-10-00 October 1986	Banfield Volker Banfield	Herbig Lutz Herbig	Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra	CPO 999 017-2
1988-08-05 August 5, 1988	Donohoe Peter Donohoe (recorded live)	Elder Mark Elder	BBC Symphony Orchestra	EMI CDC 7 49996 2
1989-02-00 February 1989	Postnikova Viktoria Postnikova	Rozhdestvensky Gennady Rozhdestvensky	France Orchestre National de France	Apex 2564 64390-2
1989-02-04 February 4, 1989	Ohlsson Garrick Ohlsson	Dohnányi Christoph von Dohnányi	Cleveland The Cleveland Orchestra	Telarc 80207
1989-09-00 September 1989	Battel Giovanni Battel	Frontalini Silvano Frontalini	Warmia National Orchestra	Bongiovanni GB5509/10-2
1990-02-13 February 8–13, 1990	Lively David Lively	Gielen Michael Gielen	Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra	Koch International CD 311 160 H1
1990-05-00 May 1990	Thiollier François-Joël Thiollier	Schønwandt Michael Schønwandt	Nice Philharmonic Orchestra	Kontrapunkt 32057
1999-06-21 June 20–21, 1999	Hamelin Marc-André Hamelin	Elder Mark Elder	Birmingham The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra	Hyperion CDA67143
2008-02-19 February 19, 2008	Massa Pietro Massa	Malzew Stefan Malzew	Neubrandenburg Neubrandenburg Philharmonic	GENUIN 88122
2009-03-09 March 8–9, 2009	Cappello Roberto Cappello	La Vecchia Francesco La Vecchia	Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma	Naxos 8.572523

Noncommercial recordings

A performance of the concerto by Pietro Scarpini with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus was broadcast on New York's WQXR on July 10, 1966.^[29] They had previously performed the concerto in Carnegie Hall, New York, on February 7, 1966.^[30]

The amateur pianist, industrialist, and philanthropist Sir Ernest Hall (a contemporary of John Ogdon at the Royal Manchester College of Music) performed the concerto in 2000 with the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra and the Halifax Choral Society conducted by John Longstaff. A recording is available through the SSO website Accessed 11 September 2009.

Video recording

It's All About the Music (Hyperion DVDA68000) is a video documentary about the pianist Marc André Hamelin. The bonus features include a performance of the fourth movement ("All' Italiana: Tarantella") with Osmo Vänskä conducting the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. The entire performance was originally telecast on March 31, 2001 on the Finnish commercial television station MTV3, and now can be found on YouTube.^[31]

Other concert performances

In addition to the above list of recordings, the concerto has also received concert performances in recent years by (among others, in alphabetical order):

• Christopher Falzone
• Carlo Grante
• Randall Hodgkinson
• Martin Jones
• Piers Lane
• Kun-Woo Paik
• Janos Solyom

Videos

YouTube links: Egon Petri (4th Mvt.); Marc-André Hamelin; John Ogdon; Garrick Ohlsson; Kun Woo Paik; Pietro Scarpini; Volker Banfield; Noel Mewton-Wood; Christopher Falzone (with OSO and transcription for solo piano_complite)

Piano Concerto, Op. 39: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project

Manuscript and publication details

Manuscripts

• Busoni Archive No. 231 (sketch)^[32]

Title: Concerto per un Pianoforte obligato principale e diversi strumenti, ad arco a fiato ed a percussione; aggiuntovi un Coro finale per voci d'uomini a 4 parti. Le parole alemanne del poeta Oehlenschlaeger, danese. la Musica di Ferruccio Busoni, da Empoli.

[Concerto for obbligato principal piano and diverse bowed, wind, and percussion instruments; additional final chorus for men's voices in 4 parts. The German words by the poet Oehlenschläger, Dane. Music by Ferruccio Busoni, from Empoli.]

Description: 48 loose sheets, partly written on one side, and partly on two; partly folio, partly not.

Note: Also contains material relating to the ending without chorus (BV 247a).^[33]

• Busoni Archive No. 232 (sketch)^[32]

Title 1: Busoni Concerto

Title 2: Concerto per un Pianoforte principale e diversi Strumenti, ad arco, a fiato ed a percussione; aggiuntovi un Coro finale per voci d'uomini a quattro parti. Le parole alemanne del poeta Oehlenschlaeger, danese; la Musica di Ferruccio Busoni, da Empoli. (Secondo abbozzo, in esteso.)

[Concerto for principal piano and diverse bowed, wind, and percussion instruments; additional final Chorus for men's voices in four parts. The German words by the poet Oehlenschläger, Dane; Music by Ferruccio Busoni, from Empoli. (Second full sketch.)]

Date: 18. Agosto 1903. (at the end of the composition)

Description: 2 title sheets; 81 leaves, written on both sides, numbered by Busoni from 1 to 41, on every second leaf (recto), corresponding to the number of quires.

Note: The sketches comprise partly piano extracts, partly short score (particell).

• Busoni Archive No. 233 (score)^[34]

Title: Conzert für Klavier u. Orch. Op. 39

On the edge: Partyt. Ms. Autogr. Busoni-Nachlaß Nr 233

Note: Lost in 1945. Now at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow.

Publications^[6]

• Score (Partitur)

Title: Concerto per un Pianoforte principale e diversi strumenti ad arco a fiato ed a percussione. Aggiuntovi un Coro finale per voci d'uomini a sei parti. Le parole alemanne del poeta Oehlenschlaeger danese. La Musica di Ferruccio Busoni da Empoli Anno MCMIV. opera XXXIX

[Concerto for principal piano and diverse bowed, wind, and percussion instruments. Additional final Chorus for men's voices in six parts. The German words by the Danish poet Oehlenschläger. Music by Ferruccio Busoni from Empoli in the year 1904. opus XXXIX.]

Date: Finis. il 3.d'Agosto 1904. (at the end of the composition)

Instrumentation: Un pianoforte principale, 2 Flauti piccoli, 3 Flauti, 3 Oboi, 1 Corno inglese, 3 Clarinetti, 1 Clarinetto basso, 3 Fagotti, 4 Corni, 3 Trombe, 3 Tromboni, 1 Tuba, 3 Timpani, Tamburo militare, Gran Cassa, Tamburino, Triangolo, Piatti, un giuoco di Campanelli a tastiera (Glockenspiel), un Gong chinese (Tamtam), 12 Violini primi, 10 Violini secondo, 8 Viole, 8 Violoncelli, 6 Contrabassi a 4 Corde, 2 Contrabassi che discendono al Do di 16 piedi, un Coro di voci d'uomini composto di 48 cantori.

Published: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1906, cat. no. Part B. 1949; (328 pages); cat. no. Ch. B. 1844; (men's chorus)

• Arrangement for 2 pianos; revised extended cadenza

Published: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1909. EB 2861, ed. Egon Petri; score (178 pages); extended cadenza rev. by Busoni, 1909 (5 pages).

Downloadable scores

• The score of the two-piano reduction by Egon Petri is available as a downloadable PDF file: File:Busoni- Piano Concerto (2-po rdn) Mvt1.pdf
• The study score and the score for Busoni's revised, extended cadenza for the 4th movement are available at IMSLP

References

Sources

Beaumont, Antony (1985). Busoni the Composer. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-13149-2

Beaumont, Antony, ed. (1987). Busoni: Selected Letters. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-06460-8

Betteridge, Harold T. (1958). The New Cassell's German Dictionary. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co.

Busoni, Ferruccio (ca. 1950). Concerto für Klavier und Orchester mit Männerchor. Study Score, cat. no. PB 5104 (reissue of the original 1906 score). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. See this work page of the International Music Score Library Project. Accessed 3 September 2009.

Dent, Edward J. (1933). Ferruccio Busoni: A Biography, London: Oxford University Press. (Reprint: London: Ernst Eulenburg, 1974) ISBN 0-903873-02-8

Kindermann, Jürgen (1980). Thematisch-chronologisches Verzeichnis der Werke von Ferruccio B. Busoni. Studien zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts, vol. 19. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse Verlag. ISBN 3-7649-2033-5

Ley, Rosamond, translator (1938). Ferruccio Busoni: Letters to His Wife, London: Edward Arnold & Co.

Oehlenschläger, Adam Gottlob (1805). Aladdin, eller Den forunderlige Lampe. Et Lystspil (in Poetiske Skrifter, Vol. II). Copenhagen: J.H Schubothe. Facsimile pages Accessed 5 September 2009 ; Online text Accessed 5 September 2009

Oehlenschläger, Adam Gottlob (1808). Aladdin oder die Wunderlampe. Dramatisches Gedicht in zwei Spielen. Amsterdam: Kunst und Industrie-Comptoir. Google Books full preview Accessed 3 September 2009.

Oehlenschläger, Adam Gottlob (1820). Aladdin, oder: die Wunderlampe. Ein dramatisches Gedicht. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus. Google Books Part 1; Part 2. Accessed 3 September 2009.

Oehlenschläger, Adam Gottlob (1863), tr. Theodore Martin. Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp. A dramatic poem – in two parts. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons. Google Books full preview Accessed 3 September 2009.

Roberge, Marc-André (1991). Ferruccio Busoni: a bio-bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-25587-3

Schonberg, Harold. C. (1963). The Great Pianists. New York: Simon and Schuster. (1987 edition: ISBN 0-671-63837-8)

Sitsky, Larry (2008). Busoni and the Piano. The Works, the Writings, and the Recordings. (2nd ed.) Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press. ISBN 978-1-57647-158-6| [First edition, Westport: Greenwood Press,1986. ISBN 0-313-23671-2]

External links

• Piano Concerto, Op. 39: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Roberge, Marc-André (1981). "Le Concerto pour piano, orchestre et chœur d’hommes, op. 39 (1904), de Ferruccio Busoni: étude historique et analytique" (M.A. thesis, McGill University, 1981), ix, 254 pp.; Microcard copy available at the National Library of Canada (French). Accessed 3 November 2009.
• Article on Piano Concerto Accessed 17 May 2011.
• Busoni Piano Concerto discography