Ferruccio Busoni

Turandot - Movement 1

The Gozzi's Turandot - in one form or another - occupied Busoni at various times in the years 1904-1917. He was very fond of fantastical and magical tales: his immediately preceding work was the Piano Concerto, Op. 39 BV247, which included music from an unfinished adaptatioon of Adam Oehlenschläger's Aladdin. In 1904 Busoni began sketching incidental music for Gozzi's Chinese fable. He also arranged a concert suite, which was first performed in 1905 and published in 1906. A production of Gozzi's play with Busoni's music was mounted by Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911, and for the second and last time in London in 1913. This transcription of the first movement of Busoni's Turandotsuite was created for George A. Treviño and his superb Lopez High School Band of Brownsville, Texas. The piece was premiered in February 2017 at the Texas Music Educators Association convention on the occasion of the Lopez band's 6A Honor Band performance.