March 10th, 2011
Program notes for all-Busoni Recital, Bernried, Germany
During his lifetime Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) was a legendary musician renowned as virtuoso pianist, teacher, aesthetician and composer. His advocacy of progressive music encouraged such composers as Arnold Schoenberg. Today, Busoni’s music is not as mainstream as one might have expected. The selections today present a small portion of his creative output and represent the range of his musical creativity in compositions for piano.
This group of five from the early 24 Preludes, from 1881, shows interesting harmonic and rhythmic exploration within traditional forms.
Throughout his career Busoni edited and transcribed the music of J.S.Bach. These four Organ-Chorale-Preludes selected from the nine that he transcribed show a precision and loyalty to the originals. Perhaps Busoni’s best-known work of this type is his brilliant transcription of the Violon Chaconne.
Busoni visited with a former student, Natalie Curtis, who had published a book, The Indian Book, of Native American Indian melodies. He was inspired to write several works, including these two selections from the Indianisches Tagesbuch: Erstes Buch. The first is a Cheyenne “Song of Victory;” the second incorporates two songs, from the Wabanakis and Hopi tribes.
The Berceuse, one of seven Elegien published in 1907, was written in memory of his mother. The chromaticism and wandering tonality just hint at some of his later work. This piece was orchestrated in an expanded version and was the last new work Gustav Mahler conducted in New York City.
The Sonatina Seconda, an extraordinary modern work, is imbued with the essence of tonality although it is an atonal work. Busoni combines tone rows and melodic cells in an intense complexity of dissonance and consonance.
From one of Busoni’s several operas, Turandot, this music based on the traditional English tune Greensleeves represents a quiet choral moment in the story. Of course Busoni expands on the simplicity of the tune in this arrangement, one of the seven Elegien.
Finally, the elegy “Meine Seele bangt…” is a subtle set of variations based on the Bach chorale tune. In a much-expanded version, Fantasia contrappuntistica, Busoni further endeavored to explore his goal of musical expression in which form and expression are in perfect balance.