BUSONI : Piano Concerto Op XXXIX (Marc-André Hamelin · City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra · Sir Mark Elder) (1999) Serie The Romantic Piano Concerto – 22 | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

This has to be our Romantic Piano Concerto for the millennium!

The Busoni concerto, with its five movements, choral finale and a length of over 70 minutes, is surely the most grandiose ever written. But this is no over-ambitious monster; Busoni was one of the greatest pianists the world has known, but he was also a great intellectual with very strong views on art and culture. This work is the masterpiece of his middle years, more of a symphony in the breadth and scope of its ideas, but at the same time almost casually requiring the most formidable technical ability from the soloist. There is no doubt that this is one of music's major neglected masterpieces.

Marc-André Hamelin needs no introduction as a champion of the greatest challenges in the piano literature. Here he is joined by Mark Elder who has a particular reputation as a Busoni conductor. He conducted this work with Peter Donohoe in their famed Proms performance of 1988 and he has also conducted Busoni's rarely performed magnum opus 'Doctor Faust' at ENO. Hyperion

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
    
Piano Concerto in C major Op 39

Credits :
Conductor – Mark Elder
Leader [Of Orchestra] – Jacqueline Hartley
Orchestra – City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Piano – Marc-André Hamelin