Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) (given names: Ferruccio Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation meant that he met and had close relations with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary figures of his time, and he was sought-after both as a keyboard instructor and a teacher of composition.
Busoni was born in Empoli, just south of Florence; he was the son of professional musicians. Initially trained by his father, he later studied at the Vienna Conservatory and then with Wilhelm Mayer and Carl Reinecke. In the ensuing years, after brief periods teaching in Helsinki, Boston, and Moscow, he devoted himself to composing, teaching, and touring as a virtuoso pianist in Europe and the United States. His writings on music were influential; they covered not only aesthetics but considerations of microtones and other innovative topics. He was based in Berlin from 1894 but spent much of World War I in Switzerland.
Busoni was an outstanding (if sometimes controversial) pianist from an early age. He began composing in his early years in a late romantic style, but after 1907, when he published his Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music, he developed a more individual style, often with elements of atonality. His visits to America led to interest in North American indigenous tribal melodies which were reflected in some of his works. His compositions include works for piano, including a monumental Piano Concerto, and transcriptions of the works of others, notably Johann Sebastian Bach which appeared in the Bach-Busoni Edition. His other compositions include chamber music, vocal and orchestral works, and also operas, one of which, Doktor Faust, was left unfinished at the time of his death. Busoni died in Berlin at the age of 58.
Latest releases
Recent highlights
Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
A Guided Tour of the Romantic Era, Vol. 15
BUSONI, F.: Lustspielouverture / Rondo arlecchinesco / Clarinet Concertino / Divertimento / Tanzwalzer (Rome Symphony, La Vecchia)
BUSONI, F.: Piano Music (Pontinen)
BUSONI, F.: Piano Concerto (Cappello, Luca Marenzio Choir, Rome Symphony, La Vecchia)
SCRIABIN: Symphony No. 3, Op. 43 / BUSONI: Berceuse elegiaque, Op. 42
BUSONI, F.: Piano Music, Vol. 7 (Harden) - Trascrizione di concerto sopra motivi dell'opera Merlin / Piano Sonatinas Nos. 3 and 6
BUSONI, F.: Chamber Music (Faust, Groben, Lingenfelder, Milin, Wehle, Witoschynskyj)
BUSONI, F.: Piano Music, Vol. 6 (Harden) - Piano Sonata in F minor / Prelude et etude / Liszt - Fantasy and Fugue on Ad nos, ad salutarem undam
Bach Transcribed
BUSONI, F.: Piano Music, Vol. 5 (Harden) - 6 Studies / 6 Pieces / 10 Variations on Chopin's C minor Prelude
BUSONI, F.: Piano Transcriptions (Groschopp)
BUSONI, F.: Piano Music, Vol. 4 (Harden) - Elegien / Fantasia nach J. S. Bach / Toccata
Cello Encores
BUSONI: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 / Bagatelles