Now settled in Berlin, Busoni renewed his concertizing, appearing before the public as a much-transformed pianist. During the years described in the previous chapter, his playing offended or irritated no one, nor did it make a particularly strong, extraordinary impression. Now it had become an important artistic phenomenon, which, while it provoked heated arguments, also attracted evergreater world attention.

The first considerable success came to Busoni in 1898, after his Berlin cycle dedicated to the “historical development of the piano concerto”; the cycle consisted of four evenings, during which the artist performed with orchestra fourteen concertos of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Hummel, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Rubinstein, and Saint-Saëns. Musical circles began to talk about a new star in the pianistic heavens. The pianist's fame was confirmed and augmented in numerous concert tours of Germany, Italy, France, England, Canada, the United States, and other countries, especially in 1912 and 1913, when, after a long absence, Busoni again appeared on the stages of Moscow and St. Petersburg, where his concerts started the famous “war” between Busonists and Hofmannists. These were the last encounters of the Russian audiences with the great artist; soon World War I began, and Busoni never visited Russia again.

By this time, Busoni's piano career had reached its apogee; its culmination was the Berlin cycle of six Klavierabends, with which the artist celebrated, in 1911, the centennial of his still much-respected teacher and inspirer.