Busoni | Piano Concerto Op39 (John Ogdon) [1/9]

[Sword1479]

The greatest concerto ever written!!!

[BenMcCormack91]

Hm. Interesting piece. I don't know if I like the whole thing - there are several places where the piano just starts zipping around playing extremely-difficult runs that are barely audible in the performance and have pretty much no effect on the overall piece. The overall piece being generally good, though, I think. I need to listen a few more times.

[OrangeSodaKing]

@BenMcCormack91 The beginning is sure beautiful, though!!

[BenMcCormack91]

@OrangeSodaKing Yeah. I don't think I dislike the piece. In fact, I think it's brilliant. I'm just not sure the piano has anything to do with it... I mean, it's sort of providing little flourishes for most of the piece while the orchestra does all the important stuff. More like concerto for orchestra and piano than piano and orchestra, perhaps? Either way... not the most rewarding piano part, but nice piece.

[OrangeSodaKing]

@BenMcCormack91 I agree with you. Have you heard Saint Saen's 4th piano concerto? It's kind of similar in concept... The piano seems to just complement the orchestra, and is still beautiful!

[88alan8800]

Op 39... maybe he was trying in some way to parallel the alkan concerto... ;)

[tsbsartini]

"PER ME L'OPERA D'ARTE È LO SCOPO SUPREMO DI OGNI ATTIVITÀ UMANA." (Ferruccio Busoni)

[trehinoonagh]

Odgon in this is magistral! certainly, definitly the best key touch " profondis" of this piece of music.

[LisztBusoni]

Tghe entrance of the Piano at 4:36 is the best how I was ear. Great Ogdon and Busoni!

[OrangeSodaKing]

So beautiful! I bought this and listen to it religiously! :D

[danjuan88]

@Sword1479

There was a big aesthetic debate in the 19th century concerning Romanticism. Hoffmann (c.1813) thought that non-representational music was Romantic. Liszt sort of countered that with Annees de Pelerinage/Symphonic Poems/etc., but Brahms was Liszt's aesthetic rival - he wrote the more 'absolute' music; hence the generally-accepted "Brahms the Classicist".

Hope this helps

[kapariz44]

Brahms suffused w/ Mediterranean light? Yes! - at least in this movement. Ogdon's playing is magisterial - few, if any, can match him.

[OniyukiRyuken]

This is quite literally the final word in concertos..I'm all for saying that Prokofiev 2, Rach 3, and Tchaik 1 will totally destroy everyone..but even the can't stand up to this ...thing...i mean 4 mvmts with awesome choir?! 2 cadenza in the 4th mvmt alone..its just too awesome..rehearsal has to suck tho

[ciliaspippi]

It is quite a monumental piece isn't it?

But despite my great affection for this piece, I personally can not say that it is better than any other. Such decisions make me head. I think this piece is as good as the rest, with a cadenzatic flair at the end

[maydengarNSBHS]

how hard is this exactly.

[ciliaspippi]

You can't say hardness exactly. It depends on which parts of your technique are the most advanced. For example, octaves could be good, but your fine chromatic technique could be quite horrendous

[astrofizzi12]

great!!! Thanks a lot for posting it

[dorfmanjones]

It's one hundred and eighty legal size pages. that sounds like the same number of PDF's to me.

[ciliaspippi]

Even Tchaikovskiy's 97 page concerto doesn't stand up to it!

[napoleoneterzo]

che meraviglia MERAVIGLIOSA.Ciao

[quagapp]

Great music - I see Busoni was a child prodigy. I heard that Ogdon was enormously popular ahead of Askhenatzy even in Russia. Ogdon committed suicide - had much depression etc

this music grows on one I feel...the more I play it the better it sounds.

[jiolsmolimassunemo]

Ogdon didn't kill himself; he died from complications resulting from diabetes, not suicide.

[dorfmanjones]

actually, yes. I I have the two piano reduction by Egon Petri with John Ogdon's handwritten notations.

[dorfmanjones]

A former student of Ogdon's at Indiana has the original and allowed me to make a xerox copy of it. I have no idea how you could see it. How would that work?

[maydengarNSBHS]

you could convert the image into a pdf file. which shouldnt take too long =/

[dorfmanjones]

You know, it occurred to me, if you want the music you should contact Breitkopf and Hartel. They'll make a a nice copy for you from their microfiche. Ten years ago they did it for me for the Liszt-Busoni Ad Nos Ad Salutarem Undam, which of course has also been out of print for eighty years. They charged me about 50 Deutschmarks.

[Brianjonestown]

Amazing that it's all available online now, for free. It's so good for ambitious pianists.

[NOSEhow2LIV]

I was fortunate enough to hear these musicians in this work just before they recorded it,(Fairfield Hall, Croydon!), I was about fourteen and i remember even now how my hair stood on end & my spine tingled, pinned to the back of my seat for the whole hour and?......It's just the same when i hear it now. Thanks for the chance to hear it again and to present it to many new admirers.

[Horushu]

One of the greatest ever concerto for piano. Busoni is a genius who starts now to be known. I have this CD from EMI recordings, it's superb!

[kasyapa]

inimitable majesty to the piano entrance - does anyone else think that a comment on the tchaikovsky concerto no. 1?

[LifeSurferer]

This is much superior!

[ianduckworth]

A treat. A concerto that shows how pointless the Brahms or Liszt arguments were in the 19th century, this work managing to be both, and more.

[Sword1479]

@ianduckworth Which arguments?

[iamkwk]

I first heard this concerto in 1968 on KFAC. I bought the recording (The Ogden one). It is an incredible, dare I say, unique piece of music.

[jiolsmolimassunemo]

just breathtaking...

[kapariz44]

I remember travelling all the way from Accrington to the Albert Hall to hear Peter Donohoe give a performance of this concerto back in 1988, and it was well worth the travel. I think Ogdon captured the Brahmsian gravitas and magisterium of the first movement better than Donohoe, esp. as the piano has to make a forceful, molto robusto impact after the long intro, but Donohoe captured the Italian elements of the inner movements rather better. The last movement belongs more to the choir, tho'.

[scriabinwasmydad]

Donohoe is amazing! I actually heard him play John Ogdon's 1st Piano Concerto some time ago. It was breathtaking, and quite an exquisite account of Ogdon's genius!

[KeithWhalen11]

This concerto has grown on me, I've listened to it over 50 times now and it gets better each and every time. I like the tempo in Ogdon's performance it definitely has a much heavier feel to it, the Hamelin one is excellent although the intro is a little more sprightly. Both performances are simply outrageous as far as I'm concerned.

[Khalisnight]

actually there are only 5 at the Moment who can play it!

[andrevazpereira1980]

At last, i`m going to listen to this concerto, there are very few pianists who recorded it... Thanks for sharing it!!