Concerto for Piano and String Quartet (Busoni)

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Concerto for Piano and String Quartet
by Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni, Vienna, 1877.jpg
The composer in 1877
Other name Concerto for Piano and Strings
Key D minor
Catalogue <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Op. 17
  • BV 80
Composed 1878 (1878): Graz
Published 1987 (1987): Wiesbaden
Movements 4

Ferruccio Busoni composed his Concerto for Piano and String Quartet in D minor, Op. 17, BV 80, in 1878, at the age of twelve.[1][2] The original title was Concerto per piano-forte con accompagnamento di quartetto ad arco, Op. 17. Conceived for string quartet, the piano can also be accompanied by a string orchestra as Concerto for Piano and Strings, the title under which it was published in 1987.

Background

Busoni was a child prodigy, first taught mostly by his father, both as a pianist and a composer. After studies in Vienna from age nine to eleven at the Vienna Conservatory, Busoni moved to Graz for health reasons in October 1877.[3] The composer Wilhelm Kienzl remembered that he improvised at a mature level: "Sitting at the piano he was inspired to the most profound seriousness and totally absorbed in his task".[3] Kienzl initiated Busoni to study with Wilhelm Mayer. Some of Busoni's early pieces were published then, including two settings of the Ave Maria and piano pieces.[4]

The score and parts are kept by the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin as part of Busoni's Nachlass.[5]

Composition

The structure of the work is in four movements. As such it resembles a classical string quartet more than a piano concerto, which typically has three movements:

  1. Allegro
  2. Adagio
  3. Scherzo – Trio
  4. Allegro vivace[2]

The duration is given as 20 minutes.[1] The work shows little premonition of the characteristics of Busoni's mature compositions, but rather pursues Mozart's models.[1] The reviewer of the first recording notes that the first entry of the piano shows "personalised nuance" and that the "Adagio has an unexpected seriousness but also a chaste intimacy and delicacy.[1] The lyrical Scherzo is reminiscent of Schubert, and the rather "conventional" finale is a display of compositional skill, including fine interplay between the piano and the strings.[1]

Publication and recording

The concerto was published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden, in 1987, edited by Larry Sitsky. The editor recommends, based on markings of tutti and divisi, to use a string orchestra, with double bass reinforcing the cellos, which was a common practise at composition time.[6]

It was first recorded in 1999 by Carlo Grante and the ensemble I Pomeriggi Musicali, conducted by Marco Zuccarini.[2][7]

References

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