FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1866-1924)
Italian Pianist and Composer

Ferruccio Busoni was an important composer, a phenomenal pianist, a teacher, writer and editor. He knew Liszt and heard him play. He knew Brahms and Anton Rubinstein, and had a close friendship with Sibelius. Among his students were Egon Petri, Dmitri Mitropoulos, and Edward Steuermann. His composition students included Kurt Weill, Edgard Varèse, Otto Luening and Stefan Wolpe, all significant composers of the 20th century.

Busoni's works include a monumental Piano Concerto for Orchestra and Chorus, well over an hour long and tremendously difficult to play. He wrote several fine operas, of which one, Doktor Faust, I found to be beautiful, inspired, and dramatic, an important opera and possibly the missing link to Berg's Wozzeck.

Busoni's editons and transcriptions of Bach and Liszt are well known but he also edited Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Schumann and Schoenberg. Busoni stands as a musical colossus with one foot still in the late Romantic era and one firmly planted in the modern.

Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D minor
from Violin Partita N°2 BWV 1004

Part I





Part II







1. Bach/Busoni: Chorale Prelude (Orgel-Choralvorspiel) "Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein" BWV 734 (piano arrangement)
2. Beethoven/Busoni: Ecossaise WoO83 in E flat major
Recorded in 1922







Bach Prelude & Fugue in C major, BWV 846
Recorded in 1922







Chopin
1. Prélude in A major opus 28 no. 7
2. Repeat and short transition (modulation in the rhythm of the Prélude) leading to
3. Étude opus 10 no. 5 in G flat major
4. Nocturne in F sharp major opus 15 no. 2
5. Étude opus 25 no. 5 in E minor
Recorded in 1922







Chopin Prelude N°15 "Raindrop"
Recorded in 1923







Paganini-Liszt-Busoni La Campanella







Paganini-Liszt Etude







Liszt Transcendental Etude No. 5 in B-flat "Feux Follets"







Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody










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