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4.0 out of 5 stars
Performance of considerable historical and musical interest, February 5, 2011
This review is from: Busoni: Concerto for Piano,Orchestra with Men's Chorus (Audio CD)
Gunnar Johansen studied with Egon Petri, who studied with Busoni. In its interpretive details, then, Johansen's account of this work is likely to veer closer to the composer's own than any other available. That said, it takes a certain independence of spirit to tackle this massive concerto: Petri had many excellent students, but of them only Johansen (to the best of my knowledge) recorded the Busoni.
The recording, in 1956 mono, has been given a clean, very nearly distortion-free transfer to CD. It benefits from the caliber of Schmidt-Isserstedt's conducting as well as from the echt deutsch playing by the NDR Symphony Orchestra. Johansen's performance is fleet, closer in this respect to Ogdon's than to Hamelin's or Ohlsson's.
Johansen 1956 I:14:55 II:9:20 III:21:20 IV:12:00 V:10:00
Ogdon 1989 I:16:17 II:9:09 III:20:05 IV:12:47 V: 8:07
Hamelin 1999 I:15:38 II:9:47 III:23:12 IV:12:17 V:10:50
Ohlsson 2002 I:15:28 II:9:53 III:23:02 IV:12:53 V:10:27
The engineering is not so vivid as in some recordings of the same vintage. For this reason, I would not recommend this as one's first recording of the Busoni. However, both transfer and performance are excellent and we are fortunate to have this available as a musically convincing historical alternative.
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