Widely considered to be by far the best recording of this piece, here is the remastered reissue of 2007 that collectors had sought for decades, namely John Ogdon's magnificent 1967 EMI Angel recording of Ferruccio Busoni's Piano Concerto, Op. 39 (BV 247, 1904), with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniell Revenaugh. This was the first commercial recording of Busoni's elephantine piano concerto, which is in five movements, calls for male chorus in the last movement and lasts as long as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Since its 1967 release, some earlier recordings of the Busoni concerto, made live with Noel Mewton-Wood and Gunnar Johansen, have surfaced, and new ones have been made, most notably with Garrick Ohlsson (for Telarc) and Marc-André Hamelin (for Hyperion). But nothing can supplant the Ogdon recording -- it not only established the Busoni concerto as an unjustly neglected masterpiece well worth hearing, but it also helped begin the process of Busoni's rehabilitation as a composer of worth. - Dave Lewis, AllMusic.

Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Busoni (1866 – 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary figures of his time, and he was a sought-after keyboard instructor and a teacher of composition.

John Ogdon

John Andrew Howard Ogdon (1937 – 1989) was an English pianist and composer. Hailed in the 1960's as the finest British pianist of his generation with a glittering international career and record contract with EMI Music, and as a musical genius of extraordinary ability. In 1973 at the pinnacle of his fame, John Ogdon was struck down inexplicably by the first in a series of severe mental breakdowns.

John Ogdon's life and career might be summed up as prodigious. A player of great strength and protean technique, Ogdon was unafraid, and in fact preferred, to tackle the biggest scores, including Busoni's mammoth Piano Concerto, Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata, the Concerto for solo piano (from the Op. 39 Etudes) of Charles-Valentin Alkan, and the four-hour Opus Clavicembalisticum by Kaikhosru Sorabji, which he first played in private recital at the age of 22. His repertoire was also massive: more than 80 composers were represented, with literally hundreds of scores, many of them committed to his unparalleled memory and more than 260 of them preserved in recordings. Mark Satola, AllMusic.

Images

I took these images in Verona, Florence and other places in Tuscany, Venice and Rome.

Performance

Piano: John Ogdon
Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Daniell Revenaugh
Men's Choir: John Alldis Choir

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