Ferruccio Busoni

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Recently I heard John Adams' arrangement for chamber orchestra of Busoni's Berceuse elegiaque, and it has got me intrigued about Busoni, of whom I know little.

Any recommendations (mainly for orchestral music)?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I know his Piano Concerto very well, an enormous work (Hamelin on Hyperion is excellent), and the Cortège and Sarabande from Doktor Faustus are wonderful, too (there is a cheap Naxos CD with, iirc, the Hongkong Symphony, which is very good).

[not edward]

For the orchestral works, this is an excellent collection that includes the Berceuse.



Jarvi has done much of the orchestral works, but in unexceptional performances. Gielen's Sarabande und Cortege's might be the ones to go for but if you don't mind historical sound there's an excellent M&A disc that includes Mitropoulos conducting that (+ the Indian Fantasy with Egon Petri and the violin concerto with Joseph Szigeti).



Doktor Faust is to my mind the summit of Busoni's career, though it was incomplete at his death. Kent Nagano did the more recent Beaumont completion which is apparently closer to the composer's wishes:



But I'd say the older (probably oop, though) Leitner recording is the better performance overall.



Obviously Busoni recommendations have to include the piano music: the piano concerto is a huge sprawling Mahlerian creation (Hamelin/Hyperion, Ogdon/EMI, Ohlsson/Telarc are all competitive, but my favourite remains Donohoe/EMI). I don't actually listen to it much now but it had a hold on me for a while. I don't really have many good recommendations for the solo piano music (the Elegies, Sonatinas, Toccata and Fantasia contrappuntistica are my favourites of what I've heard) but Petri's historical recordings usually blow away anything I've heard by contemporary pianists. I am definitely not convinced by Pontinen's performances on cpo, sadly.

[T. D.]

Bumping up this thread in search of solo piano recommendations. I have only a couple of obscure Italian releases: a Sonata and some Etudes with Emanuele Arciuli on Stradivarius, and some pieces including Fantasia contrappuntistica with Giuseppe Mariotti on Fonè. I am not a big fan of Hamelin, not inclined to go that route but perhaps could be persuaded.
Have long enjoyed the old Leitner Doktor Faust on DG; no doubt Nagano is good, but I didn't want to double up on recordings.

[JBS]

How about
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[Mirror Image]

Shouldn't this thread be in the composer section of the forum?