FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1866-1924)
Italian Pianist and Composer

Ferruccio Busoni was an important composer, a phenomenal pianist - one of the small handful of all time greats whose playing, both technically and interpretively, is to die for.  He was 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, Michael von Zadora, 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 own 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 2, BWV 1004

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