Programming requirements differ, whether a concert appears as part of a periodic series of mixed events, a thematic festival—such as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of the Beethoven symphonic cycle this November—or as a once-off gig, often paying homage to a particular composer, performer or style. And rare are the concert programmers who can resist the lure of anniversaries, whether they commemorate the births or deaths of famous artist personages or landmark works in Western music’s history, such as The Rite of Spring.

Sitsky’s “compleat” purpose is to demonstrate what the significance of Busoni could be now, well into the twenty-first century. These volumes trace an ever-broadening curve, starting with Sitsky, the pianist and composer, writing fairly technically about Busoni, the composer for piano; then going on to a wider aesthetic embrace of Busoni’s underlying philosophy, across all musical genres; and finally evidencing Sitsky’s skills as textual scholar and interpreter in offering completions to key works left unfinished by the departing Busoni.

Of course, as the pandemic showed, however far you may roam, you still sometimes do really want to “call Australia home”. But here’s the rub: if you really are so good, why are you coming home? The question lingers. The suspicion is that you might be running out of bookings, or perhaps you really can’t hack it in that supposed real world any more?

Western music consists of just twelve notes arranged across rhythms, registers, textures and forms. How do we know that a musical composition is truly great? We might consult a published score in the effort to discern genius, originality or inspiration, but that method barely scratches the surface in determining how great works come into being