Busoni

Ferrucio Busoni's name will live forever for having written the longest Piano Concerto ever (his clocks in around 75 minutes in a typical performance).

I bought the recording by John Ogdon a number of years ago, and have since added a recording my Marc Andre-Hamelin. This is one of those towering pieces that remind me why I love music. If you haven't heard it, I highly recommend you go do so. You won't regret it. His music is simple while at the same time being highly challenging.

I can also recommend many other piano works he has done (there are dozens). One of note is 'Fantasia Contrapuntistica'. Some of us may know of J.S. Bach's incomplete last piece in his Art of the Fugue. Here, Busoni recreates the fugue in an almost prophetic fashion, the way it could have been expanded to encompass every detail of the art.

The recording I have of this piece is from Altarus Records, with Joseph Banowetz and Ronald Stevenson playing. I can also recommend the latter's Passacaglia on DSCH for sheer pianism.

I have 6 CD's of his piano works by Geoffrey Douglas Madge. Some of the works sound nice interesting, but most of them aren't that special. This could ofcourse be because of Madge, since I never really liked his playing at all.

I have heard that Madge is a particularly sloppy recording artist.

He is, and his interpretations are unimaginitive and dull.

I have 6 CD's of his piano works by Geoffrey Douglas Madge. Some of the works sound nice interesting, but most of them aren't that special. This could ofcourse be because of Madge, since I never really liked his playing at all.

I'm not familiar with Madge, but I have only a few CDs of Piano music by Busoni, and I find that they are all quite enjoyable.

If you get nothing else of his, you simply must buy a recording of his Piano Concerto. I recommend the John Ogdon recording. That is far and away one of the best pieces of music I have ever heard.

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread ....

I love Busoni. The Fantasia contrappuntistica is really something - however I prefer the 1910, solo piano version to the 2-piano version.

There is also the Variations Op. 22 on Chopin Prelude (no. 20 the C minor one), which is one of my favorites. In the Toccata (Preludio, Fantasia, Ciaccona) from 1921 he eschewed traditional tonality to wonderful effect.