Bach, Busoni & Brahms

In his debut with the Seattle Symphony, Italian conductor Daniele Rustioni is joined by an Italian soloist who is also performing her first concert with the orchestra: Francesca Dego. She proves her power to effortlessly fascinate audiences with her prize-winning interpretation of Busoni’s Violin Concerto, a tour-de-force of dark Romanticism and crackling energy. Next is the masterful Piano Quartet No. 1 by Brahms, who greatly influenced Busoni. The 12-tone composer Schoenberg, who argued for Brahms’ status as a major formal innovator, arranged this version for orchestra with great respect for Brahms’ own instrumentation style. In a similar vein, Webern’s moody chamber orchestra arrangement of Bach’s Ricercare a 6 from The Musical Offering is an intriguing take on Baroque music by a composer best known for atonal radicalism.