Cosi fan Busoni

[snyprrr]

Oh no , now you've turned my Liszt itch into a Busoni scratch . Thank God there aren't too many recordings!

I could use Hamelin or someone recording this stuff pleas! Yeesh, really? First Late Liszt, and now this? Ugh.

[kishnevi]

There's this recording of the Fantasia

which I have not heard, but what I have heard of Milne (Medtner) I liked.
Hamelin has recorded the Piano Concerto and some of his recital/anthology recordings include various Busoni pieces.

[snyprrr]

Ok, I went on a Busoni Amazon-a-thon (400 cds!), and it's pretty confusing. There's lots of recitals that have no real information. Some of the headliners are:

Martin Jones
Roland Pontinen
Ronald Stevenson
G. Tozier

uh,... I forget,... I need sound AND performance. Oy, am I going to get a Busoni bug?

[DieNacht]

Yes, let´s hope that Brilliant Classics will make a Busoni edition, like they have with Martucci etc. ...

As regards the piano works, I unfortunately don´t own the Madge set of the complete (?) pieces, but the best and most substantial in my collection are "Fantasia Contrappuntistica" + "Toccata" etc./Ogdon (continuum) and the  "Sonatinen" and "Elegien" with Pöntinen (both cpo), which would form a good basis. Whereas the ageing Barnard in the other major work, "24 Preludes" (together with the Bliss Sonata, on the "Divine Art" label) doesn´t impress me and seems rather unengaged and heavy. The oeuvre also has lots of smaller and very youthful works of rather limited or anecdotical interest ...

Concerning the Piano Concerto, the OgdonDonohoe/Ermler live Proms (emi) hasn´t been mentioned. It is very lively and I probably prefer it to Ogdon, the other version I own.

[snyprrr]

I spent an hour with Busoni on YT, and I just don't know if I like this 'simplicity-meets-virtuosity' thing. One second, it's Satie, the next, Liszt. It reminds me of demonic salon music. The harmonic contours certainly seem very 19th century, but then there's this superhuman ability thing,... the two things clash for me, I don't know what to make of it. Truly, the arpeggio prelude and etude is pretty fantastic when looking at the score on YT, but I wonder what I'd 'hear' if I weren't looking at the score? It all sounds obviously 'Romantic' to me.

Busoni disturbs me.

[Karl Henning]

Maybe "listening" for an hour on YouTube disturbs you, little buddy : )

[Karl Henning]

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.

Thanks!  This came in last week, and it gripped me through an initial listen.  Need to hit it again, and repeatedly.

[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!)

I've no other recording (or listening experience) to compare it to; but I like it!

[Karl Henning]

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

(Four hands, or two pianos?)

I yielded to the whim, and pulled the trigger on the Alan Schiller and John Humphreys recording on Naxos, which Scott Morrison wrote well of.

[Rinaldo]

The more I dig into Busoni, the more he rises to the top of my 'favourite composers' list. First I thought of him as being this forgotten figure that you listen to once in a few months, but I'm finding some kind of a nocturnal quality in most of his music that really resonates with my aesthetic core. Believe it or not, I've still got to obtain a record of the Piano concerto, though. Any recommendations?

Judging from the brief samples, I like the sound of this disc

[asin]B000MM0CD6[/asin]
but the scathing user review has put me in cautious mode.

[lescamil]

The grammatical incorrectness of this thread title is rather bothersome, haha. Still creative, though!


Anyways, for the piano concerto, I would recommend 2 recordings: the one with Marc-André Hamelin and Mark Elder, and the one with Peter Donohoe and Mark Elder (I think both are with the CBSO). The Hamelin is great for an encyclopedic recording with no technical flaws, and to hear the music from an unbiased standpoint. This recording is anything but clinical and boring, though. However, if you want a more pianistically adventurous recording, get the Donohoe. His piano playing is mind-bendingly powerful, especially in the 4th movement, where he does something a bit odd and combines the cadenzas (Busoni gives 2 options).

[Rinaldo]

However, if you want a more pianistically adventurous recording, get the Donohoe. His piano playing is mind-bendingly powerful, especially in the 4th movement, where he does something a bit odd and combines the cadenzas (Busoni gives 2 options).

Thanks for the tips - I'm all for adventure and looks like it's available on YouTube, perfect!

http://www.youtube.com/v/FH60TO4egW0

[springrite]

I have the Olhsson recording (Cleveland) of the PC. It is very good but, maybe a bit too... clean? I think it may need a bit more crunch to it at times. The Ogdon has that, but ... maybe too much.

So maybe I do need at least one more, somewhere in the middle recording...

[bhodges]

Another vote for the Ogdon, Ohlsson and Hamelin recordings (don't think I've heard the Donohoe but know it is highly thought of); Hamelin's is the one I recall most recently.

Meanwhile, wanted to mention another Busoni recording I can highly recommend, of his Fantasia Contrappuntistica with Jacob Greenberg, pianist for the International Contemporary Ensemble. The Schumann coupling has many contenders, of course, but the Busoni has fewer, and Greenberg's version is excellent. (Cover image doesn't show but the link leads to the disc.)

[asin]B005N9F18O[/asin]

--Bruce

[Rinaldo]

Nice, very nice.

And I think I know what I'll be wishing for Christmas!



Comes out in November.

[Cato]

The more I dig into Busoni, the more he rises to the top of my 'favourite composers' list. First I thought of him as being this forgotten figure that you listen to once in a few months, but I'm finding some kind of a nocturnal quality in most of his music that really resonates with my aesthetic core.

There is a maddening quality about him, in that the great works (e.g. the Piano Concerto, Doctor Faust, Fantasia Contrapuntistica) give you the impression that his relatively small output will contain mainly great works, but...  The "okay works" outnumber the great ones.

Still, I think Doctor Faust is one of the greatest 20th century operas: if that were Busoni's only work, it would secure him as a great composer. 

Check out this excerpt:

http://www.youtube.com/v/_pSElevoGgs

[Rinaldo]

There is a maddening quality about him, in that the great works (e.g. the Piano Concerto, Doctor Faust, Fantasia Contrapuntistica) give you the impression that his relatively small output will contain mainly great works, but...  The "okay works" outnumber the great ones.

Still, I think Doctor Faust is one of the greatest 20th century operas: if that were Busoni's only work, it would secure him as a great composer. 

I've yet to explore Faust, although I admit I'm not too keen on operas from that particular era so it might take some time for me to appreciate it.

I seem to have arrived to Busoni from a weird angle - the fantastic Nocturne symphonique and other stuff from the CPO Orchestral Works CD, then the SQ's, which I find brilliant as well.

[not edward]

However, if you want a more pianistically adventurous recording, get the Donohoe.

110% seconded. Good as other performances available are, Donohoe is in a class of his own here: given his history with the work (he made his German debut with it), it's clearly a piece that matters greatly to him, and it shows throughout. His control of the architecture of the music is particularly impressive (what impresses me particularly about his performance of the 4th movement is how he always has something in reserve to to push the energy and tension even higher).

Still, I think Doctor Faust is one of the greatest 20th century operas: if that were Busoni's only work, it would secure him as a great composer.

Absolutely. Maybe it's not so effective on stage (more, perhaps, a music drama for the mind), but its subtle, understated musical argument hangs around in my head for days after.

I'm finding some kind of a nocturnal quality in most of his music that really resonates with my aesthetic core.

I think that's true with a lot of people who love his music: the understatement and the subtly dark colours do convey a mood that Busoni made his own in the later works. (Particularly fine examples, to me, would be the Fantasia contrappuntistica, the Elegies, Doktor Faust, some of the Sonatinas and most of the late orchestral works.)

[listener]

I've found four recordings of the Violin Concerto
Parikian, Manoug  (lp only?), Turban, Ingolf    Laredo, Jaime   Szigeti, Joseph
(from my database)    The Turban on Claves comes with the Richard Strauss concerto and Bruch #2.

[not edward]

There's also a quite recent one with Frank Peter Zimmermann on Sony (coupled with the second violin sonata):

[asin]B0009NDHM6[/asin]

The live Szigeti is probably still my favourite, though Zimmermann obviously has a huge advantage sonically.