“Ausklang” (Finale)
First edition with Sakari Oramo and Kirill Gerstein

A Wall-to-Wall Soundscape
Ferruccio Busoni’s Piano Concerto

Never heard of the genre of piano concertos with male chorus? That’s not surprising, because the one written by Italian-German composer Ferruccio Busoni between 1902 and 1904 is the only concerto of its kind. Busoni, who spent most of his life in Berlin, was famous as a pianist, but he was also a composer, a teacher, a conductor, an arranger, an author and a musicologist. As well as leading a myriad lives simultaneously, he also composed that way: all-encompassing music, often sized XXL.    

Ungraspable
In search of Ferruccio Busoni 

Pianist, teacher and composer Ferruccio Busoni is a unique phenomenon in the history of music. His works are a fascinating blend of originality and depth, of intellect and heart, and of Italian Romanticism with German musical tradition – and yet he is at best a shadowy presence on today’s international concert programmes. The reasons for this are many and varied.

Biographies

Sakari Oramo

BBC Music Magazine praised his ”feverish energy“, while the Telegraph noted that his interpretations ”really get under the skin“. ”The special intensity of orchestral playing“, says Sakari Oramo, ”is created in rehearsals. It comes from the atmosphere you create together.“ The Berliner Philharmoniker is an orchestra with ”so much energy“, notes the Finnish conductor, ”that you just have to direct it where the music demands it. In some places you take energy out, in others you put more in. It’s a balancing act.“

Kirill Gerstein

Kirill Gerstein has won widespread acclaim for his transparent, weightless playing – his trademark even in the most powerful passages. Observers have also praised his relaxed and natural style, along with the fact that every note seems perfectly placed. Whether performing as a soloist with an orchestra, as part of an ensemble or in a solo recital, the Russian-born pianist is a chamber musician through and through. Kirill Gerstein’s career began in 2000 with his concert debut with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. In 2001 he won the International Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv; the following year he was honoured with the Gilmore Young Artist Award, and went on to make acclaimed debuts with the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Munich and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras and, in 2016, with the Berliner Philharmoniker. 

Rundfunkchor Berlin

Critics have variously described the sound of the Rundfunkchor Berlin as brilliant, flexible, transparent, versatile, and precise. ”There is probably no other choir that does so many different things so well and that can deal with such a broad repertoire and such different formats,“ says Gijs Leenaars, who has been the Rundfunkchor Berlin’s chief conductor and artistic director since the beginning of the 2015/16 season. Programmes range from large-scale choral symphonies and a cappella concerts to interdisciplinary projects that break up the classical concert format and allow choral music to be experienced in a new way. In ”sing-along concerts“, the choir members invite enthusiastic amateurs to make music with them.