Cosi fan Busoni

[snyprrr]

refulgence

[karlhenning]

My Fantasia contrappuntistica was shipped from Maine yesterday . . . .

[not edward]

slightly elliptical

This phrase just jumped out at me regarding Busoni as an ideal description of the emotional content of much of his music. So often, particularly in his later works, Busoni paints something very intense in subdued colors (Berceuse elegiaque and its almost total neglect of the treble register, for example) or hints at something instead of truly depicting it.

I've always found this a particularly effective part of his compositional make-up; it might leave the later works short on overt drama but it gives large parts of even as large-scale a work as Doktor Faust a very intimate, confessional feeling.

[karlhenning]

Well, I have at long last listened to the Fantasia contrappuntistica.  Will listen to it again and again.

[karlhenning]

Today, the Piano Concerto. I've got two recordings which have come in, the soloists in them Hamelin & Ohlsson.

Most curious musical interconnection! it appears that the final chorus in the Concerto is from the Danish version of Aladdin, that of the incidental music by Nielsen.

[Scarpia]

Today, the Piano Concerto. I've got two recordings which have come in, the soloists in them Hamelin & Ohlsson.

Most curious musical interconnection! it appears that the final chorus in the Concerto is from the Danish version of Aladdin, that of the incidental music by Nielsen.

A piano concerto with chorus?   

[karlhenning]

You didn't know? : )

[Scarpia]

You didn't know? : )

If I did I've forgotten.  They only sing at the very end?

[karlhenning]

Yes, the fifth movement, Cantico (Largamente).

[Scarpia]

Yes, the fifth movement, Cantico (Largamente).

Well, four movements is enough for any concerto, I think.   

[not edward]

I think the original title for the piano concerto, Symphonie italienne, probably describes it as well as calling it a concerto. The solo part is outrageously difficult, but it's mostly a work where orchestra and soloist complement each other.

It's also one of the works where I think there's a superb under-the-radar recording: the live Proms recording with Peter Donohoe as soloist--I bet it'll be out of print. Donohoe certainly believes in the work--he made his German debut with it--and emphatically has the chops for it. (I know someone who's no mean pianist--he's performed many of the Alkan etudes in public--who was simply staggered on first hearing Donohoe's 4th movement cadenza.)

[karlhenning]

A footnote to James Oestreich's liner notes to the Ohlsson/Clevelanders disc:

[quote="James Oestreich']Though the Italian score-marking invisible seems perfectly straightforward, some absurd confusion has arisen regarding the composer's exact wishes. The British critic Eric Shanes, dreading an impending performance of "Busoni's justly neglected piano concerto" at the London Proms concerts in 1988, dropped a bombshell: "I'm sure the trend to authenticity will not be respected here: Busoni requested that choir appear in the nude." In notes I wrote for The Cleveland Orchestra performances leading up to this recording, I dismissed that notion (or so I thought) with obvious ridicule. If the choristers were to be invisible anyway, why would Busoni have cared what they were wearing? To my amazement, at least two critics subsequebntly reported Shanes's contention as fact, so I must be clear: Busoni requested only that the choristers remain hidden.[/quote]

Did Shanes's career survive this gaffe?  I smell a career-snuffer here . . . .

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Remember that EMI disc with Schmidt, Busoni, and Lutoslawski? Don't know why I sold that so long ago...

I do. Bought it in London in 1986, on cassette. The Sarabande & Cortège is still the best version I know, and I have listened to four others.

[not edward]

I do. Bought it in London in 1986, on cassette. The Sarabande & Cortège is still the best version I know, and I have listened to four others.

I've wondered about that one, but have been satisfied thusfar with SWR/Gielen and the 1941 Mitropolous. If you've heard those, how does Revenaugh stack up against them?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I checked. Apart from that EMI cassette, I have three other recordings, and the music as part of Kent Nagano's complete opera:


Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Samuel Wong - Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gerd Albrecht - BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Neëme Järvi


So I don't know the Revenaugh. From what I just read online, it seems to be very good!

[not edward]

I'm not really satisfied by the recordings I have of the Elegies or the Fantasia contrappuntistica. So I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on this new Brilliant Classics issue:

[asin]B004Z34MRU[/asin]

(Or, if there are some good alternative recommendations for these works, let me have at them!)

[Dax]

The old recordings by Martin Jones of the Elegies are pretty/very good.

Oh look!

http://squirrelnyc.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/busonis-elegies-by-martin-jones/

For Fantasia Contrappuntistica, do go for a piano solo version - Egon Petri, Ogdon or Andrew Ball. I think the last is a broadcast - I'll look it out.
Avoid Viktoria Posnikova. It's dire.

[Karl Henning]

Yes, the Piano Concerto and Doctor Faust are two of the greatest musical works ever composed, and both should be much better known!

So, Doktor Faust is unfinished?  Can anyone summarize?  (Is that you telling me to read the damned CD booklet? . . .)

I am finding Cato's ruling here in force;  not finding any the labor or forcedness to which JdP objects.

[Karl Henning]

I'm not really satisfied by the recordings I have of the Elegies or the Fantasia contrappuntistica. So I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on this new Brilliant Classics issue:

[asin]B004Z34MRU[/asin]

(Or, if there are some good alternative recommendations for these works, let me have at them!)

Dang, I've got this in a drawer at home, and I've not yet listened to it. Fie!

Is there a performance anyone knows of, which best shows off the four-hands version of the  Fantasia contrappuntistica?

(Four hands, or two pianos?)

[not edward]

So, Doktor Faust is unfinished?  Can anyone summarize?  (Is that you telling me to read the damned CD booklet? . . .)

I believe all was complete except for the final scene, though Busoni had been constantly tinkering with the work and would no doubt have made other changes (he seems to have had an almost Boulezian tendency to rewrite again and again).

Busoni's pupil Philipp Jarnach provided a performing version for the final scene from what material he had access to; further sketches came to light later on, and Anthony Beaumont provided a new version of the final scene that was recorded on Kent Nagano's Virgin recording (the Leitner uses the Jarnach version, and also has some cuts).

As an opera for listening, I think it's a remarkable work; I've never been lucky enough to see it live, and am not sure how well it would work on-stage, given its--so very typical of the composer--musical understatement and often rather undramatic nature.