Despite a smattering of new recordings in 2024 to celebrate the centenary of his death, Ferruccio Busoni still maintains only a toehold in the repertoire. Among his orchestral works, the gargantuan Piano Concerto gets the most performances, driven perhaps by its ticket-selling sensational demands. Giovanni Bellucci’s classy accounts on this new release, however, prove that the Italian composer with a thoroughly German manner has several other works up his sleeve thoroughly deserving of an outing or two.

First up is admittedly mostly by Liszt. Busoni’s 1893 arrangement of the older composer’s 1867 Rhapsodie espagnole was intended to lend colour to a work he felt deserved a brighter palette than the piano solo original. Shimmering with triangle, castanets, tambourine and cymbals, it’s a sumptuous affair, with Bellucci leaping each of its finger-shredding hurdles with room to spare. Once heard, it’s hard to resist popping it on loop.

The Concertino for Piano and Orchestra is a curiosity, combining the Op. 31a Konzertstück written for a competition in 1890 and the Op. 54 Romanza e Scherzoso, composed 31 years later in 1921. Stylistically it’s an odd fish, the two sound worlds audibly quite different, yet each works perfectly well on its own.

The 20-minute Konzertstück is brooding and, with its two-minute introduction, almost Brahmsian. Bellucci treats it accordingly, his performance serious-minded and suitably grand, though livelier in the vaulting sections of the second half. At half its length, the Romanza e Scherzoso is a charmer, the scoring noticeably lighter with greater harmonic daring. Bellucci is warm, even noble, in the Romanza, rising to virtuosic heights in the sparkling Scherzoso.

The most typically Busonian work is saved for last. The idiosyncratic Indianische Fantasie, which premiered in 1914, incorporates melodies and rhythms the composer had culled from the music of several Native American tribes. As such, it ties in nicely with Liszt’s way of incorporating folk-derived tunes in his various rhapsodies. The 25-minute tripartite work hints at the American prairie (though Copland would do it more convincingly) while revelling in Busoni’s expressionist harmonic language. A shapely performance finds the muscular Bellucci equal to the daunting task with the piano nicely forward in the mix.

The Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI plays superbly under Daniele Callegari throughout, while the resonant recording, which only reveals itself as deriving from live performances when the audience bursts into applause, has depth and character.

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Composer: Busoni
Works: Works for Piano and Orchestra
Performers: Giovanni Bellucci p, Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI/Daniele Callegari
Label: Da Vinci Classics C01000