Ferruccio Busoni

Dante Michaelangelo Benvenuto Ferruccio Busoni (April 1, 1866 – July 27, 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, music teacher and conductor.

Recordings

Busoni made a considerable number of piano rolls, and a small number of these have been re-recorded onto vinyl record or CD. His recorded output on gramophone record is much smaller and rarer. It includes the following pieces (recorded for Columbia):

Related Topics:
Piano roll - Vinyl record - CD - Gramophone record

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• Prelude & Fugue No. 1 (Bach)
• Etude Op. 25 No. 5 (Chopin)
• Chorale Prelude "Nun freut euch liebe Christen" (Bach-Busoni)
• Ecossaisen (Beethoven)
• Prelude Op. 27 No. 7 & Etude Op. 10 No. 5 (Chopin) the two works are connected by an improvisatory passage
• Etude Op. 10 No. 5 (Chopin)
• Nocturne Op. 15 No. 2 (Chopin)
• Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 (Liszt) this has substantial cuts, to fit it on two sides of a 78 record.

Busoni also mentions recording the Gounod-Liszt Faust Waltz in a letter to his wife in 1919. However, this recording was never released. Unfortunately for posterity, Busoni never recorded his original works.

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The value of these recordings in ascertaining Busoni's performance style is a matter of some dispute. Many of his collegues and students expressed disappointment with the recordings and felt they did not truly represent Busoni's pianism. His student Egon Petri was horrified by the piano roll recordings when they first appeared on LP and said that it was a travesty of Busoni's playing. Similarly, Petri's student Gunnar Johansen who had heard Busoni play on several occasions, remarked, "Of Busoni's piano rolls and recordings, only Feux follets (Liszt's 5th Transcendental Etude) is really something unique. The rest is curiously unconvincing. The recordings, especially of Chopin, are a plain misalliance". However, Kaikhosru Sorabji, a fervent admirer, found the records to be the best piano recordings ever made when they were released.

Related Topics:
Egon Petri - Gunnar Johansen - Kaikhosru Sorabji

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