Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
Two contemporaneous masterpieces – the Whistler-paintings-inspired Debussy first-performed in 1899, the Busoni in 1904 (by the Berlin Philharmonic, the composer as soloist). Debussy’s Clouds, Festivals and Sirens were especially fine, as three years ago in London, https://www.colinscolumn.com/bbc-proms-2022-prom-44-bbc-symphony-orchestra-chorus-sakari-oramo-debussys-trois-nocturnes-ethel-smyths-mass-in-d-live-bbc-radio-3-broadcast/, expressive, lonely (as a cloud), sad, yet beguiling (wonderful woodwinds); then ebullient and incisive (faster than London if just as articulate), with the sudden appearance of a distant night-time processional that grew in proximity and volume in perfect calibration to a climax; finally the alluring if-a-danger-to-shipping Sirens, here flowing yet suspenseful, the ladies of the chorus intonationally spot-on.
Busoni’s outsize, five-movement, Piano Concerto enters the listener’s consciousness immediately with a soulful-noble melody in the orchestra, and when the pianist enters it is with a fistful of notes, Kirill Gerstein displaying his mastery of the complex/challenging solo part, as throughout, whether in profoundly serious music, as at the outset, or the giocoso second movement, or its lengthy successor, which explores man’s deepest reflections, secrets not given away easily, riposted by the scintillation of the tarantella that is the fourth, a carnival of colour and engaging tunes, a festive dance swept along in this performance, with rhythmic verve and clarity, becoming delirious, orchestral virtuosity matching Gerstein’s tireless championing, and how deftly Busoni segues into the ‘Cantico’ final section, words from Oehlenschläger’s Aladdin translated into German by the author, offering some respite, an obbligato role, to the pianist, before a full-circle surge brings this Concerto for Piano and Orchestra to a resounding close, a seventy-minute performance (rather longer on the Postnikova/Rozhdestvensky recording) as much a success for the Berliners and Oramo, and lusty men’s choir, as for Gerstein.
Debussy Trois Nocturnes ‘Nuages’-‘Fêtes’-*’Sirènes’
Busoni Piano Concerto in C, Opus 39 (The composer’s draft description: “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.” | 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.)
*Women of the Rundfunkchor Berlin
**Men of the Rundfunkchor Berlin
Completed in 1904…
Busoni Doktor Faust ‘Sarabande’