Bringing Busoni’s Piano Concerto to the Proms | Benjamin Grosvenor

Bringing Busoni’s Piano Concerto to the Proms | Benjamin Grosvenor

There’s an invisible choir, text from a Danish play about Aladdin, and it’s inspired by classical architecture, nature and quasi-Egyptian iconography – no wonder Busoni’s Piano Concerto is rarely performed. Now the colossus is coming to the Proms

My family are avid walkers. Every holiday I can remember there has been an ambitious hike of some kind. Last summer my parents conquered Ben Nevis with my elder brother, who has Down’s syndrome, and we were all particularly proud of his achievement.

No muddy walking boots for me yet this year though. My own challenge has been a mountain of a more horizontal nature: that of the piano keyboard and Busoni’s monumental Piano Concerto. Often referred to as the “Everest” or the “skyscraper” concerto, it is a piece of such hyper-virtuosic pianistic demands that few play it, or are mad enough it take it on.

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