Misplaced Pages

#748251

109-408: Bösendorfer built the first Imperial in 1909, following a suggestion by composer Ferruccio Busoni to build a model with an extended range. Busoni sought to extend the range to accommodate his transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach 's organ works. In order to emulate the 32 foot registers available on some large organs, he needed the entire octave down to C0. The Bösendorfer Imperial features 97 keys:

218-416: A violin concerto . Antony Beaumont notes that Busoni wrote virtually no chamber music after 1898 and no songs between 1886 and 1918, commenting that this was "part of the process of freeing himself from his Leipzig background ... [evoking] worlds of middle-class respectability in which he was not at home, and [in which] the shadows of Schumann, Brahms and Wolf loomed too large." The first decade of

327-624: A book he had received from his former pupil, the ethnomusicologist Natalie Curtis Burlin during his 1910 tour of the US. The work was premiered with Busoni as soloist in March 1914, in Berlin. From June 1914 to January 1915, Busoni was in Berlin. As a native of a neutral country (Italy) living in Germany, Busoni was not greatly concerned, at first, by the outbreak of war. During this period, he began to work seriously on

436-434: A companion piece for his revision of Turandot as an opera. He began serious work on his opera Doktor Faust in 1916, leaving it incomplete at his death. It was then finished by his student Philipp Jarnach , who worked with Busoni's sketches as he knew of them. In the 1980s Antony Beaumont created an expanded and improved completion by drawing on material to which Jarnach did not have access; Joseph Horowitz has described

545-458: A composer and the profundity of his theoretical writings make [him] one of the most interesting figures in the history of 20th-century music." The Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition was initiated in Busoni's honour in 1949, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death. Notes Doktor Faust Doktor Faust is an opera by Ferruccio Busoni with a German libretto by

654-405: A composition to every other phrase and to the whole, was the truest artist of all the pianists [I] had ever heard." Busoni's works include compositions, adaptations, transcriptions, recordings and writings. Busoni gave many of his works opus numbers ; some numbers apply to more than one work (after the composer dropped some of his earlier works from his acknowledged corpus). Furthermore, not all

763-653: A concert format presented by the American Opera Society at Carnegie Hall . The production was conducted by Jascha Horenstein and starred Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role with George Shirley as Mephistopheles and Ingrid Bjoner as the Duchess of Parma. The first United States staged performance of the work was given on 25 January 1974 in Reno, Nevada, by the Nevada Opera Company conducted by Ted Puffer at

872-428: A considerable number of piano rolls ; a few of them have been re-recorded and released on vinyl LP and CD . These include a 1950 recording by Columbia sourced from piano rolls made by Welte-Mignon including music of Chopin and transcriptions by Liszt. The value of these recordings in ascertaining Busoni's performance style is a matter of some dispute. Many of his colleagues and students expressed disappointment with

981-594: A dancer and remained a friend. His experience in Vienna in 1907 was less satisfactory, although amongst his more rewarding pupils were Ignaz Friedman , Leo Sirota , Louis Gruenberg , Józef Turczyński and Louis Closson; the latter four were dedicatees of pieces in Busoni's 1909 piano album An die Jugend . But arguments with the Directorate of the Vienna Conservatoire, under whose auspices the classes were held, soured

1090-507: A free fantasy in a pianistic style which owes far more to Busoni than to Bach." On the death of his father in 1909, Busoni wrote in his memory a Fantasia after J. S. Bach ( BV 253 ); and in the following year came his extended fantasy based on Bach, the Fantasia contrappuntistica . Busoni wrote a number of essays on music. The Entwurf einer neuen Ästhetik der Tonkunst ( Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music ), first published in 1907, set out

1199-467: A full eight octaves. This is in contrast to their other extended model, the Bösendorfer 225, which has 92 keys (down to F 0 ). The extra keys, which are all at the bass end of the keyboard (that is, to the left), are colored black so that the pianist can tell them apart from the normal keys of an 88-key piano. They were originally covered with a removable panel to prevent a pianist from accidentally playing

SECTION 10

#1732868864749

1308-529: A hundred on completion. The next morning, Busoni turned up at Schwalm's office, and asked for 150 marks, handing over the completed work, and saying "I worked from nine at night to three thirty, without a piano, and not knowing the opera beforehand." In 1888, the musicologist Hugo Riemann recommended Busoni to Martin Wegelius , director of the Institute of Music at Helsingfors (now Helsinki , Finland, then part of

1417-657: A more individual style, often with elements of atonality . His visits to America led to interest in North American indigenous tribal melodies which were reflected in some of his works. His compositions include works for piano, among them a monumental Piano Concerto , and transcriptions of the works of others, notably Johann Sebastian Bach (published as the Bach-Busoni Editions ). He also wrote chamber music , vocal and orchestral works, and operas—one of which, Doktor Faust , he left unfinished when he died, in Berlin, at

1526-497: A more mature style, including the Elegies (BV 249; 1907), the suite An die Jugend (BV 252; 1909) and the first two piano sonatinas , BV 257 (1910) and BV 259 (1912). In a series of orchestral concerts in Berlin between 1902 and 1909, both as pianist and conductor, Busoni particularly promoted contemporary music from outside Germany (though he avoided contemporary music, except for his own, in his solo recitals). The series, which

1635-819: A performance at the Staatsoper am Platz der Republik . The work was performed again in Hanover and in Prague , the first performance outside of Germany, in June 1928. Its first performance in England was on 17 March 1937 in a concert version presented at Queen's Hall , London, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult . The opera was sung in the English translation prepared by Edward J. Dent , produced by Edward Clark , and starred Dennis Noble as Faust and Parry Jones as Mephistopheles. A second concert version

1744-538: A private performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire which was attended by, amongst others, Willem Mengelberg , Edgard Varèse , and Artur Schnabel . In Paris in 1912 Busoni had meetings with Gabriele D'Annunzio , who proposed collaboration in a ballet or opera. He also met with the Futurist artists Filippo Marinetti and Umberto Boccioni . Following a series of concerts in Northern Italy in spring 1913, Busoni

1853-527: A question by saying that "Nothing is proven, and nothing is provable", with a citation of Martin Luther , the Catholic and Protestant students break into quarrel. Once that has subsided, Faust recalls his affair with the Duchess. Mephistopheles, disguised as a courier, brings the news that she has died and sent a gift to Faust. This is a baby's corpse, and Mephistopheles tosses it at Faust's feet. Mephistopheles tells

1962-466: A recitalist initially raised concerns in some of Europe's musical centres. His first concerts in London, in 1897, met with mixed comments. The Musical Times reported that he "commenced in a manner to irritate the genuine amateurs [i.e. music-lovers] by playing a ridiculous travesty of one of Bach's masterly Organ Preludes and Fugues, but he made amends by an interpretation of Chopin's Studies (Op. 25) which

2071-535: A riding accident) whilst on military training, and published an article strongly critical of war. An expanded re-issue of Busoni's 1907 work A New Esthetic of Music let to a virulent counter-attack from the German composer Hans Pfitzner and an extended war of words. Busoni continued to experiment with microtones : in America he had obtained some harmonium reeds tuned in third-tones , and he claimed that he "had worked out

2180-485: A series of further concerts, Busoni later said of this period, "I never had a childhood." In 1875, he made his concerto début playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 . From the ages of nine to eleven, with the help of a patron, Busoni studied at the Vienna Conservatory . His first performances in Vienna were glowingly received by the critic Eduard Hanslick . In 1877, Busoni heard the playing of Franz Liszt , and

2289-633: A small round cap perched proudly on his thick artist's curls". Between 1888 and 1890, Busoni gave about thirty piano recitals and chamber concerts in Helsingfors; amongst his compositions at this period were a set of Finnish folksongs for piano duet (Op. 27). In 1889, visiting Leipzig, he heard a performance on the organ of Bach 's Toccata and Fugue in D minor ( BWV 565), and was persuaded by his pupil Kathi Petri—the mother of his future pupil Egon Petri , then only five years old—to transcribe it for piano. Busoni's biographer Edward Dent writes that "This

SECTION 20

#1732868864749

2398-460: A theme from Giacomo Meyerbeer 's opera Le Prophète ) and concert versions of two of the Hungarian Rhapsodies . Busoni also made keyboard transcriptions of works by Mozart, Franz Schubert , Niels Gade and others in the period 1886–1891 for the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel . Later, during his earliest contacts with Arnold Schoenberg in 1909, he made a 'concert interpretation' of

2507-585: A virtuoso pianist in Europe and the United States. His writings on music were influential, and covered not only aesthetics but considerations of microtones and other innovative topics. He was based in Berlin from 1894 but spent much of World War I in Switzerland. He began composing in his early years in a late romantic style, but after 1907, when he published his Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music , he developed

2616-823: Is Rector Magnificus of the university. While he is working on an experiment in his laboratory, Wagner, his pupil, brings word of three students from Kraków, who have arrived unannounced to give Faust a book on black magic, Clavis Astartis Magica (The Key to the Magic of Astarte). Faust reflects on the power that will soon be his. The students come on stage, and tell him that this book is for him. When Faust asks what he must give in return, they say only "Later". He then asks whether he will see them again, and they respond "Perhaps." They then depart. Wagner reappears, and after questioning from Faust, tells his teacher that he saw no one enter or leave. Faust concludes that these visitors were supernatural. Midnight that same evening. Faust opens

2725-572: Is based on themes from Georges Bizet 's opera Carmen . Busoni's output on gramophone record as a pianist was very limited, and many of his original recordings were destroyed when the Columbia Graphophone Company 's factory burned down in 1912. Busoni mentions recording the Gounod-Liszt Faust Waltz in a letter to his wife in 1919. This recording was never released. He never recorded any of his own works. Busoni made

2834-654: Is difficult to analyse ... on account of the way in which themes are transferred from movement to another. The work has to be considered as a whole, and Busoni always desired it to be played straight through without interruption." The press reaction to the premiere of the concerto was largely one of outrage: the Tägliche Rundschau  [ de ] complained of "Noise, more noise, eccentricity and licentiousness", while another journal opined that "the composer would have done better to stay within more modest boundaries". The other major work during this "creative pause"

2943-400: Is really something unique. The rest is curiously unconvincing. The recordings, especially of Chopin, are a plain misalliance". Busoni's impact on music was perhaps more through those who studied piano and composition with him, and through his writings on music, than through his compositions themselves, of whose style there are no direct successors. Alfred Brendel has opined: "Compositions like

3052-409: Is so constituted that every context is a new context and should be treated as an 'exception'. The solution of a problem, once found, cannot be reapplied to a different context. Our art is a theatre of surprise and invention, and of the seemingly unprepared. The spirit of music arises from the depths of our humanity and is returned to the high regions whence it has descended on mankind." Sir Henry Wood

3161-572: Is used for Busoni's transcriptions and cadenzas . For example, BV B 1 refers to Busoni's cadenzas for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 . In 1917, Hugo Leichtentritt suggested that the Second Violin Sonata Op. 36a ( BV 244 ), completed in 1900, "stands on the border-line between the first and second epochs of Busoni", although van Dieren asserts that in conversation Busoni "made no such claims for any work written before 1910. This means that he dated his work as an independent composer from

3270-452: The B-A-C-H motif . Busoni revised the work a number of times and arranged it for two pianos. Busoni also drew inspiration from North American indigenous tribal melodies drawn from the studies of Natalie Curtis, which informed his Indian Fantasy for piano and orchestra of 1913 and two books of solo piano sketches, Indian Diary . In 1917, Busoni wrote the one-act opera Arlecchino (1917) as

3379-535: The Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts . The opera was given in an English translation by Ted and Deena Puffer and starred Daniel Sullivan as Faust and Ted Rowland as Mephistopheles. Although certainly not one of the most frequently performed operas, Doktor Faust has been produced a number of times over the last twenty-five years. Companies which have staged the work include: Opernhaus Graz, Austria, (1965),

Imperial Bösendorfer - Misplaced Pages Continue

3488-507: The Russian Empire ), for the vacant position of advanced piano instructor. This was Busoni's first permanent post. Amongst his close colleagues and associates there were the conductor and composer Armas Järnefelt , the writer Adolf Paul , and the composer Jean Sibelius , with whom he struck up a continuing friendship. Paul described Busoni at this time as "a small, slender Italian with chestnut beard, grey eyes, young and gay, with ...

3597-876: The Teatro Comunale di Bologna (1985), the Palais Garnier (1989), La Scala (1989), the New York City Opera (1992), the Salzburg Festival (presented by the Opéra National de Lyon , 1999), the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (2006), and the Berlin State Opera (2008) among others. The Metropolitan Opera mounted its first production of the work in 2001 with Thomas Hampson in the title role, Robert Brubaker as Mephistopheles, and Katarina Dalayman as

3706-579: The Tonhalle Orchestra ) and Philipp Jarnach . His friend José Vianna da Motta also taught piano in Geneva at this time. Andreae arranged for Busoni to give concerts with his orchestra. Jarnach, who was 23 when he met Busoni, in 1915, became Busoni's indispensable assistant, among other things preparing piano scores of his operas; Busoni referred to him as his famulus . While in America, Busoni had carried out further work on Doktor Faust , and had written

3815-483: The 20th century is described by Brendel as being for Busoni "a creative pause" after which he "finally gained an artistic profile of his own" as opposed to the "easy routine which had kept his entire earlier production on the tracks of eclecticism". During this period, Busoni wrote his Piano Concerto, one of the largest such works he ever wrote in terms of duration and resources. Dent comments "In construction [the Concerto]

3924-464: The Beaumont completion as "longer, more adventurous and perhaps less good." In the last seven years of his life Busoni worked sporadically on his Klavierübung , a compilation of exercises, transcriptions, and original compositions of his own, with which he hoped to pass on his accumulated knowledge of keyboard technique. It was issued in five parts between 1918 and 1922 An extended version in ten books

4033-514: The Biblical wanderer). The musicologist Antony Beaumont considers Busoni's six Liszt recitals in Berlin of 1911 as the climax of his pre-war career as a pianist. Busoni's performing commitments somewhat stifled his creative capacity during this period: in 1896 he wrote "I have great success as a pianist, the composer I conceal for the present." His monumental Piano Concerto (whose five movements last over an hour and include an offstage male chorus)

4142-520: The Duchess. Second is Samson and Delilah. Third is John the Baptist with Salome. An Executioner (looking like the Duke) threatens the Baptist (resembling Faust), but the Duchess cries out that the Baptist must be saved. In an aside, Faust asks the Duchess to run off with him, but she is hesitant, if willing. The Duke declares the magic show concluded and announces supper. Mephistopheles warns Faust to flee, since

4251-507: The Duke and Duchess of Parma is in process. The Master of Ceremonies announces a guest, the famous magician Dr. Faust. Faust enters with his herald (Mephistopheles). The Duchess is immediately smitten with Faust; the Duke surmises that "Hell has sent him here." Faust alters the atmosphere to night to be able to perform his magic feats. The first, at the Duchess' request, is vision of King Solomon and Queen Balkis, who respectively resemble Faust and

4360-502: The age of 58. Ferruccio Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto Busoni was born on 1 April 1866 in the Tuscan town of Empoli , the only child of two professional musicians, Ferdinando, a clarinettist, and Anna (née Weiss), a pianist. Shortly afterwards, the family moved to Trieste . A child prodigy , largely taught by his father, he began performing and composing at the age of seven. In an autobiographical note he comments "My father knew little about

4469-505: The atmosphere. In the autumn of 1910 Busoni gave masterclasses and also carried out a series of recitals in Basel. In the years before World War I, Busoni steadily extended his contacts in the art world in general as well as amongst musicians. Arnold Schoenberg , with whom Busoni had been in correspondence since 1903, settled in Berlin in 1911 partially as a consequence of Busoni lobbying on his behalf. In 1913 Busoni arranged at his own apartment

Imperial Bösendorfer - Misplaced Pages Continue

4578-426: The book and follows its directions. He makes a circle on the floor, steps into it and calls upon Lucifer to appear. A pale light is seen around the room, and then unseen voices materialize. Faust then wishes, as his 'Will', for spirits at his beck and call. Five flames appear, servants of Lucifer, but Faust is not impressed at their claims of speed. The sixth flame/voice, Mephistopheles, claims that "I am as swift as

4687-430: The chorus in the distance singing a 'Credo' on Easter morning, Faust signs the pact in blood, wondering what has become of his 'Will'. He faints upon realizing that he has forfeited his soul. Mephistopheles gleefully takes the contract in hand. By this point, Faust has seduced the maiden Gretchen. At a chapel, her brother, a soldier, prays to find and punish the violator of his sister's honour. Mephistopheles points out

4796-459: The chorus, behind the curtain, sings the single word: "Pax". In front of the curtain the poet speaks to the spectators explaining why he abandoned his earlier ideas of using Merlin and Don Juan as subject matter in favor of Faust . This spoken introduction emphasizes the play's origins in puppet theater . (This section is often omitted.) Wittenberg, Germany, during the Middle Ages. Faust

4905-550: The church sing of judgment and salvation. Faust wants to try to redeem himself with one final good deed. He sees a beggar woman with a child, and realizes that she is the Duchess. She hands him the child, tells him that there is still time to complete his work before midnight, then vanishes. Faust then tries to enter the church, but the Soldier (from the Intermezzo) materializes to block his path. Faust tries to pray, but cannot remember

5014-544: The composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji who played his Piano Sonata No. 1 for him (he had dedicated it to Busoni). Busoni was sufficiently impressed to write a letter of recommendation for Sorabji. When Busoni's former pupil Leo Kestenberg , by then an official at the Ministry of Culture in the German Weimar Republic , invited him to return to Germany with the promise of a teaching post and productions of his operas, he

5123-457: The composer's intentions. Busoni adds tempo markings, articulation and phrase markings, dynamics and metronome markings to the originals, as well as extensive performance suggestions. In his edition of Bach's Goldberg Variations (BV B 35), for example, he suggests cutting eight of the variations for a "concert performance", as well as substantially rewriting many sections. Kenneth Hamilton comments that "the last four variations are rewritten as

5232-451: The composer's numbers are in temporal order. The musicologist Jürgen Kindermann has prepared a thematic catalogue of his works and transcriptions which is also used, in the form of the letters BV (for Busoni Verzeichnis ("Busoni Index"); sometimes the letters KiV for Kindermann Verzeichnis are used) followed by a numeric identifier, to identify his compositions and transcriptions. The identifier B (for Bearbeitung , " arrangement ")

5341-403: The composer, based on the myth of Faust . Busoni worked on the opera, which he intended as his masterpiece, between 1916 and 1924, but it was still incomplete at the time of his death. His pupil Philipp Jarnach finished it. More recently, in 1982, Antony Beaumont completed the opera using sketches by Busoni that were previously thought to have been lost. Nancy Chamness published an analysis of

5450-436: The conductor Hermann Scherchen , and others. Busoni died in Berlin on 27 July 1924, officially from heart failure , although inflamed kidneys and overwork also contributed to his death. Doktor Faust remained unfinished at his death and was premiered in Berlin in 1925, completed by Jarnach. Busoni's Berlin apartment was destroyed in an air-raid in 1943, and many of his possessions and papers were lost or looted. A plaque at

5559-677: The depths of my aspirations". Berlin was the heart of the musical world of the Weimar Republic. Busoni's works, including his operas, were regularly programmed. Health permitting, he continued to perform; problems of hyperinflation in Germany meant that he needed to undertake tours of England. His last appearance as a pianist was in Berlin in May 1922, playing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. Among his composition pupils in Berlin were Kurt Weill , Wladimir Vogel , and Robert Blum, and during these last years Busoni also had contact with Varèse, Stravinsky ,

SECTION 50

#1732868864749

5668-1161: The duchess. The San Francisco Opera performed the work for the first time in a co-production with the Staatsoper Stuttgart in 2004 with Rodney Gilfry in the title role, Chris Merritt as Mephistopheles, and Hope Briggs as the duchess. A 2006 performance of the opera at the Zurich Opera was filmed live and released on DVD. The production starred Thomas Hampson in the title role and was conducted by Philippe Jordan (see additional details here ). The orchestra consists of: 3 flutes (piccolo), 3 oboes (English horn), 3 clarinets (bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (contrabassoon); 5 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba; timpani, percussion (triangle, drum, military drum, cymbals, tam-tam, xylophone, bass drum, glockenspiel, celesta), 2 harps; organ; strings. Stage music: 3 trumpets, 2 trombones; bells; timpani; strings (violin, viola, cello). The opera contains two prologues, an intermezzo, and three scenes. Orchestral introduction: Easter Vespers and Augurs of Spring. The orchestra begins with bell imitations; later

5777-518: The duchess. La Scala staged the opera for the first time on 16 March 1960 under conductor Hermann Scherchen with Dino Dondi in the title role, Aldo Bertocci as Mefistofele, and Margherita Roberti as the duchess. The first performance of Doktor Faust in France occurred at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 19 June 1963. Shortly thereafter, the work had its United States premiere on 1 December 1964 in

5886-423: The extra footage in the bass. Ending a piece such as Debussy 's L'isle joyeuse , for example, with its nose-dive final gesture to the low A of the piano, becomes a bit more problematic when that A is not the lowest note on the piano!" Reportedly, "[the] 290 has proved a bit of a temperamental star, sounding harsh and jarring in the hands of pianists who do not understand how to play it and marvellously refined in

5995-480: The extra notes. While the keys are seldom used, the extra bass strings create additional harmonic resonance that contributes to an overall richer sound. Compositions have been written specifically to use the extra keys. Pianist and University of Washington School of Music director Robin McCabe explains the challenge of adjusting to the extra keys: "One's 'southern sight-lines,' so to speak, can be seriously skewed because of

6104-560: The financial support of a patron, the Baronin von Tedesco. He also continued to compose, and made his first attempt at an opera, Sigune , which he worked on from 1886 to 1889 before abandoning it. He described how, finding himself penniless in Leipzig, he appealed to the publisher Schwalm to take his compositions. Schwalm demurred, but said he would commission a fantasy on Peter Cornelius 's opera The Barber of Baghdad for fifty marks down, and

6213-576: The food is poisoned. The Duchess returns to tell Faust that she will accompany him. Mephistopheles, disguised as a court chaplain, returns with the Duke and advises him against chasing down Faust and the Duchess. Instead, he advises the Duke to marry the sister of the Duke of Ferrara, who is threatening war on the Duke of Parma. In modo d'una Sarabanda [In the style of a Sarabande ] At a tavern in Wittenberg Some students talk of Plato and metaphysics, with Faust present. After Faust has responded to

6322-510: The hands of those who do". Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand pianos, handcrafted in Austria, retail for between US$ 256,000 and $ 560,000 in the U.S., depending on finish, design and whether the Disklavier Enspire computer reproducing system is installed. (Bösendorfer's CEUS reproducing system, "Create Emotions with Unique Sound", developed in-house, is more expensive still.) In 1977, the price

6431-412: The latter's atonal Piano Piece, Op. 11 , No. 2 (BV B 97) (which greatly annoyed Schoenberg himself). Busoni's own works sometimes feature incorporated elements of other composers' music. The fourth movement of An die Jugend (1909), for instance, uses two of Niccolò Paganini 's Caprices for solo violin (numbers 11 and 15), while the 1920 piece Piano Sonatina No. 6 ( Fantasia da camera super Carmen )

6540-575: The libretto for his proposed opera Doktor Faust . In January 1915 he left for a concert tour of the US, which was to be his last visit there. During this time he continued work on his Bach edition, including his version of the Goldberg Variations . Upon the composer's return to Europe, Italy had entered the war. Busoni therefore chose to base himself from 1915 in Switzerland. In Zurich, he found local supporters in Volkmar Andreae (conductor of

6649-448: The libretto of his one-act opera Arlecchino . He completed it in Zurich and, to provide a full evening at the theatre, reworked his earlier Turandot into a one-act piece . The two were premiered together in Zurich in May 1917. In Italy in 1916, Busoni met again with the artist Boccioni, who painted his portrait; Busoni was deeply affected when a few months later Boccioni was killed (in

SECTION 60

#1732868864749

6758-815: The libretto to Doktor Faust and a comparison with Goethe 's version. Doktor Faust was given its world premiere at the Sächsisches Staatstheater , Dresden on 21 May 1925 using the version completed by Philipp Jarnach. The premiere was conducted by Fritz Busch , produced by Alfred Reucker, and designed by Karl Danneman. Over the next few years the opera was performed in many of the opera houses of Germany including those in Dortmund , Duisburg , Karlsruhe , Weimar , and Hanover in 1925; Hanover and Wiesbaden in 1926; and Stuttgart , Dortmund, Hanover, Cologne , Leipzig , Hamburg , and Frankfurt in 1927. The opera finally reached Berlin on 27 October 1927 with

6867-465: The librettos of his four operas. Writing in 1917, Hugo Leichtentritt described Busoni's mature style as having elements in common with those of Sibelius, Debussy, Alexander Scriabin , and Schoenberg, noting in particular his movement away from traditional major and minor scales towards atonality . The first landmarks of this mature style are the group of piano works published in 1907–1912 (the Elegies ,

6976-594: The local authorities. After the outbreak of World War I, in August 1914, he asked for a year of absence to play an American tour; in fact he was never to return. Virtually his sole permanent achievement at the school was to have modernized its sanitary facilities. He had however during this time composed another concertante work for piano and orchestra, the Indian Fantasy . The piece is based on melodies and rhythms from various American Indian tribes; Busoni derived them from

7085-517: The magic book. Faust tells them that he has destroyed it. The students then tell him that he will die at the stroke of midnight. A Wittenberg street, in the snow, outside the church . Mephistopheles, in disguise as a Night Watchman, announces that it is eleven o'clock. Wagner, the successor to Faust as university Rector and now resident in Faust's former home, says good-night to a group of students. Faust enters, alone, and sees his old home. Voices from

7194-419: The maxim that "Music was born free; and to win freedom is its destiny". It therefore takes issue with conventional wisdom on music, caricatured by Busoni as the constricting rules of the "lawgivers". It praises the music of Beethoven and JS Bach as the essence of the spirit of music ("Ur-Musik") and says that their art should "be conceived as a beginning , and not as an unsurpassable finality." Busoni asserts

7303-469: The monstrously overwritten Piano Concerto  ... obstruct our view of his superlative late piano music. How topical still – and undiscovered – are the first two sonatinas... and the Toccata of 1921 ... Doktor Faust , now as ever, towers over the musical theatre of its time." Helmut Wirth has written that Busoni's "ambivalent nature, striving to reconcile tradition with innovation, his gifts as

7412-484: The musical industry [was to] develop an atmosphere which [Busoni] detested more than the deepest pool of stagnant convention". Berlin proved an excellent base for Busoni's European tours. As in the previous two years in the US, the composer had to depend for his living on exhausting but remunerative tours as a piano virtuoso; in addition at this period he was remitting substantial amounts to his parents, who continued to depend on his income. Busoni's programming and style as

7521-612: The night. The Night Watchman, now revealed as Mephistopheles, sees Faust's body on the ground, and asks "Sollte dieser Mann verunglückt sein?" ["Has this man met with some misfortune?"]. In the Beaumont ending Mephistopheles throws Faust's body onto his shoulders and walks off; distant voices repeat Faust's final words: "Blut meines Blutes, Glied meines Gliedes, dir vermach' ich mein Leben, ich, Faust, ich, Faust, ein ewiger Wille." ["Blood of my blood, limb of my limb, I bequeath to thee my life, I, Faust, I, Faust, one eternal will."] The poet speaks to

7630-526: The noblest persons of our time", and in which he explained that " Falstaff provoked in me such a revolution of spirit that I can ... date the beginning of a new epoch in my artistic life from that time." In 1894, Busoni settled in Berlin, which he henceforth regarded as his home base, except during the years around World War I . He had earlier felt unsympathetic toward the city: in an 1889 letter to Gerda he had described it as "this Jewish city that I hate, irritating, idle, arrogant, parvenu ". The city

7739-477: The organ Toccata and Fugue in D minor , and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue . These transcriptions go beyond literal reproduction of the music for piano and often involve substantial recreation, although never straying from the original rhythmic outlines, melody notes and harmony. This is in line with Busoni's own concept that the performing artist should be free to intuit and communicate his divination of

7848-415: The period Busoni undertook teaching at masterclasses at Weimar , Vienna and Basel. In 1900 he was invited by Duke Karl-Alexander of Weimar to lead a masterclass for fifteen young virtuosi. This concept was more amenable to Busoni than teaching formally in a Conservatory: the twice-weekly seminars were successful and were repeated in the following year. Pupils included Maud Allan , who later became famous as

7957-554: The piano pieces An die Jugend  ... and the Berceuse in its original version for piano." (These works were actually written in 1909.) The Kindermann Busoni Verzeichnis lists over 200 compositions in the period to 1900, which are met with very rarely in the contemporary repertoire or in recording, mostly featuring piano, either as solo instrument or accompanying others, but also including some works for chamber ensemble and some for orchestra, amongst them two large-scale suites and

8066-526: The pianoforte and was erratic in rhythm, so he made up for these shortcomings with an indescribable combination of energy, severity and pedantry." Busoni made his public debut as a pianist in a concert with his parents at the Schiller-Verein in Trieste on 24 November 1873 playing the first movement of Mozart 's Sonata in C major , and pieces by Schumann and Clementi . Commercially promoted by his parents in

8175-474: The principles underlying his performances and his mature compositions. A collection of reflections which are "the outcome of convictions long held and slowly matured", the Sketch asserts that "The spirit of an artwork ... remains[s] unchanged in value through changing years" but its form, manner of expression, and the conventions of the era when it was created, "are transient and age rapidly". The Sketch includes

8284-427: The recordings and felt they did not truly represent Busoni's pianism. Egon Petri was horrified by the piano roll recordings when they first appeared on vinyl and said that they were 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 (no. 5 of Liszt's Transcendental Études )

8393-400: The right of the interpreter vis-à-vis the purism of the "lawgivers". "The performance of music, its emotional interpretation , derives from those free heights whence descended Art itself ... What the composer's inspiration necessarily loses through notation, his interpreter should restore by his own." He envisages a future music that will include the division of the octave into more than

8502-558: The site commemorates his residence. Busoni's wife, Gerda, died in Sweden in 1956. Their son Benni, who, despite his American nationality had lived in Berlin throughout World War II, died there in 1976. Their second son Lello, an illustrator, died in New York in 1962. The pianist Alfred Brendel said of Busoni's playing that it "signifies the victory of reflection over bravura " after the more flamboyant era of Liszt. He cites Busoni himself: "Music

8611-432: The soldier to Faust, who wants to kill him, but not with his own hands. Mephistopheles disguises himself as a monk and offers to hear the Soldier's confession. A military patrol, surreptitiously directed by Mephistopheles, enters and kills the Soldier, claiming that the soldier had murdered their captain. The soldier's death is then to weigh on Faust's conscience. The Ducal Park of Parma, Italy The wedding ceremony for

8720-404: The students of Faust's seduction of the Duchess, and subsequent abandonment. Mephistopheles then changes the dead infant into a bundle of straw and sets fire to it, from which comes a vision of Helen of Troy. The students recoil, and Mephistopheles departs. Faust attempts to embrace the vision, but it eludes him. In her place instead, the three Kraków students materialize, to demand the return of

8829-484: The suite An die Jugend and the first two piano sonatinas) and Busoni's first completed opera, Die Brautwahl ; together with the rather different Bach homage, the 1910 Fantasia contrappuntistica , Busoni's largest work for solo piano. About half an hour in length, it is essentially an extended fantasy on the final incomplete fugue from Bach's The Art of Fugue . It uses several melodic figures found in Bach's work, most notably

8938-501: The superior insight of my maturity, and in the freedom gained by me, God and the Devil together cease to exist."]) In parallel with Prologue I, Faust forms a circle on the ground. He then steps into it with the child's body and, with one last supreme effort, he transfers his life-force to the child. The Night Watchman calls out the midnight hour; Faust falls dead; a naked youth arises with a blossoming branch in his right hand and steps forth into

9047-440: The theory of a system of thirds of tones in two rows, each separated from each other by a semitone". Although he met with many other artistic personalities also based in Switzerland during the war (including Stefan Zweig , who noted his extensive drinking, and James Joyce ), Busoni soon found his circumstances limiting. After the end of the war, he again undertook concert tours in England, Paris and Italy. In London, he met with

9156-459: The thoughts of man" (" als wie des Menschen Gedanke "). Faust then accepts Mephistopheles as a servant. He demands that all his wishes be granted, to have all knowledge and the power of genius. Mephistopheles, in return, says that Faust must serve him after death, which Faust recoils from at first. Mephistopheles reminds Faust that his creditors and enemies are at the door. With Faust's approval, Mephistopheles causes them to fall, dead. Then, with

9265-482: The traditional 12 semitones . However, he asserted the importance of musical form and structure: His idea of a 'Young Classicism' "aimed to incorporate experimental features in "firm, rounded forms" ... motivated each time by musical necessity." (Brendel). Another collection of Busoni's essays was published in 1922 as Von der Einheit der Musik , later republished as Wesen und Einheit der Musik , and in 1957 translated as The Essence of Music . Busoni also wrote

9374-767: The two- and three-part Inventions . In the same year he won the prize for composition, with his Konzertstück ("Concert Piece") for piano and orchestra, Op. 31a ( BV 236 ), at the first Anton Rubinstein Competition , initiated by Anton Rubinstein himself at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory . As a consequence he was invited to visit and teach at the Moscow Conservatoire . Gerda joined him in Moscow where they promptly married. His first concert in Moscow, when he performed Beethoven 's Emperor Concerto ,

9483-551: The words. From the light of the Night Watchman's lamp, Faust sees the figure of the crucified Christ metamorphose into that of Helen of Troy. "Gibt es keine Gnade?" ["Is there no mercy?"], he sings. (At this point in the Beaumont version Faust sings "Euch zum Trotze ... die wir nennen böse.... An dieser hohen Einsicht meiner Reife bricht sich nun eure Bosheit und in der mir errungnen Freiheit erlischt Gott und Teufel zugleich." ["I defy you ... whom we call evil.... Your malice breaks on

9592-683: Was Arthur Nikisch , whom he had known since 1876 when they performed together at a concert in Vienna. Busoni's first son, Benvenuto (known as Benni), was born in Boston in 1892, but Busoni's experience at New England Conservatory proved unsatisfactory. After a year he resigned from the Conservatory and launched himself into a series of recitals across the Eastern US. Busoni was at the Berlin premiere of Giuseppe Verdi 's opera Falstaff in April 1893. The result

9701-647: Was an Italian composer , pianist , conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary figures of his time, and he was a sought-after keyboard instructor and a teacher of composition. From an early age, Busoni was an outstanding, if sometimes controversial, pianist. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory and then with Wilhelm Mayer and Carl Reinecke . After brief periods teaching in Helsinki , Boston , and Moscow , he devoted himself to composing, teaching, and touring as

9810-623: Was elected in 1881 to the Accademia Filharmonica of Bologna , the youngest person to receive this honour since Mozart. In the mid 1880s, Busoni was based in Vienna, where he met with Karl Goldmark and helped to prepare the vocal score for the latter's 1886 opera Merlin . He also met Johannes Brahms , to whom he dedicated two sets of piano Études , and who recommended he undertake study in Leipzig with Carl Reinecke . During this period, Busoni supported himself by giving recitals, and also by

9919-528: Was eventually to form a volume of the Bach-Busoni Edition , an undertaking which was to extend over thirty years. Seven volumes were edited by Busoni himself; these included the 1890 edition of the Two- and Three-Part Inventions . Busoni also began to publish his concert piano transcriptions of Bach's music, which he often included in his own recitals. These included some of Bach's chorale preludes for organ,

10028-583: Was held at the Beethovensaal (Beethoven Hall), included German premieres of music by Edward Elgar , Sibelius, César Franck , Claude Debussy , Vincent d'Indy , Carl Nielsen and Béla Bartók . The concerts also included premieres of some of Busoni's own works of the period, among them, in 1904, the Piano Concerto, in which he was the soloist under conductor Karl Muck ; in 1905, his Turandot Suite , and, in 1907, his Comedy Overture . Music of older masters

10137-468: Was included, but sometimes with an unexpected twist. For example, Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with the eccentric first movement cadenza by Charles-Valentin Alkan (which includes references to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony ). The concerts aroused much publicity but generated aggressive comments from critics. Couling suggests the programming of the concerts was "generally regarded as a provocation". During

10246-572: Was introduced to the composer, who admired his skill. In the following year, Busoni composed a four-movement concerto for piano and string quartet . After leaving Vienna, he had a brief period of study in Graz with Wilhelm Mayer , and conducted a performance of his own composition Stabat Mater , Op. 55 in the composer's initial numbering sequence, ( BV 119 , now lost) in 1879. Other early pieces were published at this time, including settings of Ave Maria (Opp. 1 and 2; BV 67 ) and some piano pieces. He

10355-649: Was not only the beginning of [his] transcriptions, but ... the beginning of that style of pianoforte touch and technique which was entirely [Busoni's] creation." Returning to Helsingfors, in March of the same year Busoni met his future wife, Gerda Sjöstrand, the daughter of the Swedish sculptor Carl Eneas Sjöstrand , and proposed to her within a week. He composed Kultaselle ("To the Beloved") for cello and piano for her ( BV 237 ; published in 1891 without an opus number). In 1890, Busoni published his first edition of Bach works:

10464-707: Was of course unequal but, on the whole, interesting". In Paris, the critic Arthur Dandelot commented "this artist has certainly great qualities of technique and charm", but strongly objected to his addition of chromatic passages to parts of Liszt's St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots . Busoni's international reputation rose swiftly, and he frequently performed in Berlin and other European capitals and regional centres (including Manchester, Birmingham, Marseilles, Florence, and many German and Austrian cities) throughout this period, as well as returning to America for four visits between 1904 and 1915. This journeying life led van Dieren to call him "a musical Ishmael " (after

10573-645: Was offered the directorship of the Liceo Rossini in Bologna. He had recently moved to an apartment in Viktoria-Luise-Platz in Schöneberg , Berlin, but took up the offer, intending to spend his summers in Berlin. The posting proved unsuccessful. Bologna was a cultural backwater, despite occasional visits from celebrities such as Isadora Duncan . Busoni's piano pupils were untalented, and he had constant arguments with

10682-580: Was presented at the Royal Festival Hall , London, on 13 November 1959, again conducted by Boult, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role and Richard Lewis as Mephistopheles. The UK stage premiere did not occur until 1986, when it was mounted in London at the English National Opera beginning on 25 April with conductors Mark Elder and Antony Beaumont . Thomas Allen sang Faust and Graham Clark , Mephistopheles. The performance

10791-506: Was published posthumously in 1925. Apart from his work on the music of Bach, Busoni edited and transcribed works by other composers. He edited three volumes of the 34-volume Franz Liszt Foundation's edition of Liszt's works, including most of the études, and the Grandes études de Paganini . Other Liszt transcriptions include his piano arrangement of Liszt's organ Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" (BV B 59) (based on

10900-510: Was reported to be $ 35,000, $ 176,000 in 2023 adjusted for inflation. While the concert piano market is dominated by Steinway & Sons , which signs prominent artists to a performance agreement and urges them to refrain from playing any other piano brand, performers preferring the Bösendorfer Imperial will often have that piano shipped with them while on tour. Ferruccio Busoni Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924)

11009-602: Was sung in Dent's translation and used the new ending by Antony Beaumont. The opera received its Italian premiere at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on 28 May 1942 under the baton of Fernando Previtali and starring Enzo Mascherini as Faust, Renato Gigli as Mefistofele, and Augusta Oltrabella as the duchess. Previtali conducted another notable production of the opera at that house in 1964 with Renato Cesari as Faust, Herbert Handt as Mefistofele, and Luisa Maragliano as

11118-483: Was surprised to hear Busoni playing, with two hands in double octaves , passages in a Mozart concerto written as single notes. At this, Donald Tovey proclaimed Busoni "to be an absolute purist in not confining himself strictly to Mozart's written text", that is, that Mozart himself could have taken similar liberties. The musicologist Percy Scholes wrote that "Busoni, from his perfect command over every means of expression and his complete consideration of every phrase in

11227-414: Was swiftly growing in population and influence during this period and determined to stake itself as the musical capital of the united Germany, but as Busoni's friend the English composer Bernard van Dieren pointed out, "international virtuosi who for practical reasons chose Berlin as their abode were not so much concerned with questions of prestige", and for Busoni the city's development as "the centre of

11336-536: Was the Turandot Suite . Busoni employed motifs from Chinese and other oriental music in the suite, though, as Leichtentritt points out, the Suite is "in fact the product of an Occidental mind, for whom the exact imitation of the real Chinese model would always be unnatural and unattainable ... the appearance is more artistic than the real thing would be." The suite was first performed as a purely musical item in 1905; it

11445-417: Was to force on him a re-evaluation of the potential of Italian musical traditions which he had so far ignored in favour of the German traditions, and in particular the models of Brahms and the orchestral techniques of Liszt and Wagner . Busoni immediately began to draft an adulatory letter to Verdi (which he never summoned the courage to send), in which he addressed him as "Italy's leading composer" and "one of

11554-527: Was used in a production of the play in 1911, and was eventually transformed into a two-act opera in 1917. 1894 saw the publication in Berlin of the first part of Busoni's edition of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach for the piano; the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier . This was equipped with substantial appendices, including one " On the Transcription of Bach's Organ Works for the Pianoforte ". This

11663-435: Was very glad to take the opportunity. In 1920, Busoni returned to the Berlin apartment at Viktoria-Luise-Platz 11 that he had left in 1915. His health began to decline, but he continued to give concerts. His main concern was to complete Doktor Faust , the libretto of which had been published in Germany in 1918. In 1921 he wrote "Like a subterranean river, heard but not seen, the music for Faust roars and flows continually in

11772-607: Was warmly received. But living in Moscow did not suit the Busonis for both financial and professional reasons; he felt excluded by his nationalistically-inclined Russian colleagues. So when Busoni received an approach from William Steinway to teach at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, he was happy to take the opportunity, particularly since the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at that time

11881-406: Was written between 1901 and 1904. In 1904 and 1905, the composer wrote his Turandot Suite as incidental music for Carlo Gozzi 's play of the same name . A major project undertaken at this time was the opera Die Brautwahl , based on a tale by E. T. A. Hoffmann , first performed (to a lukewarm reception) in Berlin in 1912. Busoni also began to produce solo piano works that clearly revealed

#748251