Busoni: Piano Concerto

Roberto Cappello (piano), Corale Luca Marenzio, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma/Francesco La Vecchia Naxos 8.572523****

The chorale which opens Busoni's 1904 Piano Concerto unfolds with prophetic expansiveness. It's launching a mega-concerto, a five- movement work of Brucknerian scale that takes nearly 80 minutes in this new recording. The piece is a concert rarity – not only on account of its length, but also because its finale calls for an off-stage male chorus intoning lines from Oehlenschläger's Aladdin, "Lift up your hearts to the eternal Force". The work is full of virtuoso demands, but virtuosity is rarely the main point. Roberto Cappello and Francesco La Vecchia give this often deeply ruminative piece time to breathe (most performances are closer to 70 minutes) and the spaciousness of their music-making increases the music's tensile strength. They pick up nicely on Busoni's touches of black humour, too. See url.ie/af6o