Turandot - (Movement 1 from the suite to Gozzi's fairy tale drama)

Carlo Gozzi's Turandot, in one form or another, occupied Busoni at various times throughout the years of 1904-1917. He was very fond of fantastical and magical tales; his immediately preceding work was his massive piano concerto (Op. 39 BV247), which included music from an unfinished adaptatioon of Adam Oehlenschlager's Aladdin. Busoni began sketching music for Gozzi's fable in 1904; his concert suite was first performed in 1905 and published in 1906. A production of the play with Busoni's music was mounted by Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911, then in London in 1913. This transcription of the first movement of the suite was created for George A. Trevino 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.