Part 2
Although Busoni wrote a large amount of piano music, he wrote few works for piano and orchestra. Apart from the early Konzertstiick and two later works, the piano concerto is his only work in this medium, certainly his only largeicale piece. It was completed in August 1904, when he was thirty-eight, and first performed three years later at a concert in Berlin, with the composer as soloist.
There are five movements, which
Busoni wished to be played without a break: Prologo a Introito; Pezzo giocoso; Pezzo serioso; All' Italiana, a tarantella making use of Italian popular songs; and Caniico, in which a six-part male chorus lings the Danish poet Oehlenschlager's Aladdin-a song of praise to Allah, the Almighty God in whom the world lives and moves. The work ends with a coda recalling material from the previous movement.