The most grandiose piano concerto of all time?

With a name like Ferruccio Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Busoni, I imagine a pianist would do anything to live up to his potential. Ferruccio Busoni’s aspirational Piano Concerto swings for the fences, with an epic, 70-minute running time, large orchestration, demanding solo part, and men’s chorus in the finale.

The text, from Adam Oehlenschläger’s verse-drama “Aladdin,” begins:

“Deep and quiet, the pillars of rock begin to sound:
Lift up your hearts to the power eternal,
Feel Allah’s presence, behold all his works!”

In the score, Busoni instructs that the chorus should be invisible. Somehow, this was mistranslated, so that there’s still a widespread misunderstanding that he actually wanted the singers to perform nude. Although whether it’s ever been presented that way is anyone’s guess.

Oddly, the concerto isn’t designed as a showcase for a fire-eating virtuoso. Beyond it being something of an endurance test for the soloist, there aren’t really any flashy cadenzas or too many opportunities to hot dog. The work is more like a gargantuan piano fever dream.

I particularly like the movement “All’Italiana,” evocative of Italian folk music and popular song. It always makes me think of Chico Marx.

To give you a sense of perspective, Rachmaninoff’s ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 2, at less than half the length, was first performed three years earlier, in 1901. The work would later be used on the soundtrack to “Brief Encounter.” There is nothing brief about Busoni’s concerto.

The pianist here is Marc-André Hamelin, who used to come into my bookshop looking for arcane sheet music, back in the day. Just a few years before this video, as a matter of fact. About a decade later, I saw him perform Busoni’s concerto at Carnegie Hall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPzurDZzZ4

Eileen Joyce plays Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in “Brief Encounter,” with Celia Johnson and a young Trevor Howard:

Happy birthday, Busoni and Rachmaninoff!