One of the greats died 100 years ago today

There is a small plaque in Berlin marking the house where he lived. A piano competition in the Italian Tyrol where he grew up. And not much else on the face of the earth.

Ferruccio Busoni, who died on 27 July 1924 at the age of 58, was one of the early makers of the 20th century. A pianist of hypnotic power, he was the soloist most admired by Gustav Mahler, not just for his performances but for his boundless intellect and curiosity.

He married a Swede and settled in Berlin, propelling the city after 1918 into thhe central hub of musical modernism.

Not much is being done to mark his centenary, other than a BBC Proms performance by Ben Grosvenor and the LPO of his monumental piano concerto next month – 70 minutes long, and counting.

He was not the most concise of composers, but if I was organising a musical dinner party, Busoni would be the one I’d want sitting next to me.