Busoni

13 Posts
archive-post-image
Ferruccio Busoni: Suite for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 10
“No precocious sentimentality or studied bizarrerie”
On 27 July 2024, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ferruccio Busoni’s (1866-1924) death. At the time of his passing, he was widely remembered as a pianist with legendary technique, “but his activities as composer and author usually received only
Read more
archive-post-image
On This Day
6 August: Busoni’s Fantasia Contrappuntistica Was Premiered
Ferruccio Busoni had always been fascinated by the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and he gradually “achieved a profound understanding of Bach’s polyphony and his expressive intentions.” Over time, Busoni translated a good many of Bach’s compositions for the piano,
Read more
archive-post-image
For the Virtuoso at Home: Busoni’s Solo Dramatique
Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) had an international career in music, starting with his own career as pianist. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory, taught briefly in Helsinki, Moscow, and Boston, and then started his international tours as a pianist.
Read more
archive-post-image
On This Day
11 May: Busoni’s Turandot Was Premiered
Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) famously claimed that Schiller’s translation of Carlo Gozzi’s dramatic fairy-tale Turandot in conjunction with Carl Maria von Weber’s incidental music “ruined a masterpiece of Italian literature.” Gozzi’s play, supposedly based on a Persian story from the collection
Read more
archive-post-image
Busoni’s Chinese Fable: Turandot Suite
Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) famously claimed that Schiller’s translation of Carlo Gozzi’s dramatic fairy-tale Turandot in conjunction with Carl Maria von Weber’s incidental music “ruined a masterpiece of Italian literature.” With the centennial of Gozzi’s death on the horizon in 1906,
Read more
archive-post-image
Musicians and Artists: Busoni and Boccioni
When we look at artists and their friends, sometimes its because, in each of their realms, the artist and the composer may have similar stylistic thoughts. In other cases, however, the works of the two artists may be completely opposite.
Read more
archive-post-image
Turandot’s Chambers
Several years before Puccini charmed the operatic world with his musical setting of Carlo Gozzi’s theatrical fairytale “Turandot,” Ferruccio Busoni completed his opera by the same name in 1917! As early as 1905, Busoni had composed incidental music for the
Read more
archive-post-image
Busoni and the Clarinet
When we speak of musicians, we often credit their parent or a likely aunt as their first influence at their instrument. For the Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924), we find his father, clarinettist Fernando Busoni (1834-1909), important to his development
Read more