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Leo Sirota was Busoni’s favorite and best pupil, as Josef Hofmann was Anton Rubinstein’s favorite and best pupil. Comments adapted from Sirota’s daughter’s memoir, “The Only Woman in the Room” by Beate Sirota Gordon: “My father, Leo Sirota, was born… in Kiev on May 4, 1885”… When he was nine years old, Leo gave his first recital, and in the same year he entered the Imperial Music School in Kiev… At ten, he went on his first Russian concert tour. Paderewski heard him play and invited him to come to Paris and study with him, but Leo's mother, thinking the boy was too young, rejected the idea.”… “After graduating from the Imperial Music School he went to St. Petersburg, where he was awarded the Artist’s Diploma at the Conservatory. Its director, the composer Alexander Glazunov, then wrote a letter of recommendation for him to Ferruccio Busoni, the Italian composer-pianist who was teaching in Vienna at the time…” “Leo, deciding not to use his letter of introduction to Busoni immediately but to choose a teacher for himself, attended classes given by Josef Hofmann, Leopold Godowsky, Ignace Paderewski and Busoni. He auditioned for each of them, and all four accepted him; only then did he choose the Italian. When Leo gave him the letter from Glazunov, he responded, smiling: "What need is there for this? I have heard you play!" “Four years later, at a lesson, Leo played Liszt’s “Don Juan Fantasy”. At first his teacher was silent. Then he strode to the piano and closed the lid.” “After that masterful piece of playing," he said, "I don't wish to hear anyone else today." He then went to his desk, took out a copy of his own composition, Elegien, and described on it: "To my young colleague from Kiev, for the ‘Don Juan Fantasy’ on May 4, 1908, in Vienna. Cordially, Ferruccio Busoni." It was Leo's 23rd birthday. He always prized this dedication for that one word, "colleague." … “In 1910 an event that attracted the interest of all musical Europe catapulted Leo Sirota to fame. On December 18 Busoni conducted the Tonkünstler Orchestra in a program that included the "Don Juan Fantasy” and Mozart’s Sonata in D for two pianos, with Busoni and Sirota performing. The pièce de résistance, however, was the premiere of Busoni’s Concerto for Piano, Orchestra and Chorus, with my father as soloist. There were 16 curtain calls. Leo was just 25 years old. Busoni predicted a glittering future for his protégé…” “The Musical Courier of December 1, 1921, wrote of a soloist "who, with his virtuosity, his passionate temperament and engaging personality, has literally taken Berlin by storm" and went on to predict "a brilliant future for this young man, equipped as he is with all the weapons of the virtuosos of the ‘grand’ period."... … “A critic from the Wiener Morganzeitung in his adopted city of Vienna described him as "one of the last representatives of the disappearing type of great virtuosos like Liszt and Anton Rubinstein." Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_... Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/GregNich...