Concerto for Piano and String Quartet | |
---|---|
by Ferruccio Busoni | |
![]() The composer in 1877 | |
Other name | Concerto for Piano and Strings |
Key | D minor |
Catalogue | BV 80 |
Opus | 17 |
Composed | 1878 Graz : |
Published | 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.
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]
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:
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]
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]