Ferruccio Busoni

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Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – July 27,1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, and tutor.

His international work and reputation led him to collaborate closely with many of the top musicians, writers, and literary figures of his time, as well as a sought-after keyboard instructor and a composition tutor. Busoni was an outstanding if also controversial pianist from an early age.

He studied at the Vienna Conservatory and later with Wilhelm Mayer and Carl Reinecke.

He dedicated himself to writing, teaching, and touring as a virtuoso pianist in Europe and the United States after brief stints teaching in Helsinki, Boston, and Moscow.

His books on music were influential, and they were not limited to aesthetics but also to microtones and other emerging topics.

He was based in Berlin from 1894 but spent a large part of World War I in Switzerland. He began writing in a late romantic style in his teens, but after 1907, when he released his Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music, he developed a more personal style, often with elements of atonality.

His visits to America ignited an interest in North American indigenous tribal melodies that were reflected in some of his works.

His collections include piano works, a monumental Piano Concerto, and transcriptions of other artists' works, notably Johann Sebastian Bach (published as the Bach-Busoni Editions).

Doktor Faust, his son, wrote chamber music, vocal and orchestral compositions, and operas, one of which, Doktor Faust, died in Berlin at the age of 58.

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Early career

Ferruccio Dante Michelangiolo Busoni was born in Empoli, Tuscany, on April 1, 1866, with Ferdinando, a clarinettist, and Anna (née Weiss), a pianist, as the sole child of two professional musicians. The family migrated to Trieste just short of completing their move. At the age of seven, a child prodigy, largely taught by his father, began performing and writing. "My father knew little about the pianoforte and was erratic in rhythm," he says, so he compensated for these flaws with an indescribable blend of energy, severity, and pedantry." Busoni made his public debut as a pianist in a recital with his parents at the Schiller-Verein in Trieste on November 24th, 1873, performing the first movement of Mozart's Sonata in C major, as well as pieces by Schumann and Clegg. Busoni later said of this period that "I never had a childhood" when his parents were commercially promoted in a series of further concerts. He appeared in 1875 for his debut on stage in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1875. 24.

Busoni studied at the Vienna Conservatory from the age of nine to eleven, with the assistance of a patron. Eduard Hanslick's first appearances in Vienna were lauded. Busoni heard Franz Liszt's playing in 1877 and was introduced to the composer, who adored his talent. Busoni conducted a four-movement concerto for piano and string quartet next year. After leaving Vienna, he undertook a brief period of study in Graz with Wilhelm Mayer and produced a version of his own composition Stabat Mater Op. In 1879, 55 in the composer's first numbering sequence (BV 119, now lost). At this time, other early pieces, including scenes of Ave Maria (Opp.), were published. BV 67) and some piano pieces; BV 67) and some piano pieces.

In 1881, he was elected to the Accademia Filharmonica de Bologna, becoming the youngest person to be honoured since Mozart. Busoni was based in Vienna in the mid-1880s, where he worked with Karl Goldmark and assisted in preparing the vocal score for the latter's 1886 opera Merlin. Johannes Brahms, to whom he dedicated two sets of piano Études, and who recommended that he study in Leipzig with Carl Reinecke, were also present. Busoni aided himself during this period by giving recitals and in addition, the Baronin von Tedesco patron. He continued to compose and made his first attempt at an opera, Sigune, which he performed on from 1886 to 1889 before abandoning it. He pleaded with the publisher Schwalm to order his books, describing how, being penniless in Leipzig, he appealed to the publisher Schwalm to retrieve his manuscripts. Schwalm denied finishing his work The Barber of Baghdad by Peter Cornelius was cancelled, but said he'd commission a fantasy on his own for fifty marks down and a hundred on completion. Busoni turned up at Schwalm's office and asked for 150 marks for the final product, as well as the fact that "I worked from nine to three thirty, without a piano and not knowing the opera beforehand" says the composer.

Busoni was recommended by Hugo Riemann, the musicologist, to Martin Wegelius, the Institute of Music at Helsingfors, which later became part of the Russian Empire, for the unoccupied position of advanced piano instructor. This was Busoni's first permanent post. Armas Järnefelt, a writer, and composer Jean Sibelius, among his close colleagues and acquaintances, were among his fellows and acquaintances. Busoni was viewed by Paul at this time as "a tiny, slender Italian with chestnut beard, grey eyes, young and gay, with... a modest round cap perched firmly on his thick artist's curls."

Busoni performed about thirty piano recitals and chamber concerts in Helsingfors between 1888 and 1890; among his compositions at this time were a collection of Finnish folk songs for piano duet (Op. ). (27). He saw a performance on Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565), and was encouraged by his pupil Kathi Petri—the mother of his future pupil Egon Petri, who was then just five years old—to transcribe it for piano. "This was not the beginning of [his] transcriptions, but it was also the beginning of [Busoni's] creation." Busoni, a Swedish sculptor, arrived in Helsingfors in March of the same year, and he proposed to her within a week. He created Kultaselle ("To the Beloved") for cello and piano for her cello and piano, which was released in 1891 without an opus number.

Busoni's first Bach edition: the two- and three-part Inventions appeared in 1890. Op. : With his Konzertstück ("Concert Piece") for piano and orchestra, he received the award for composition in the same year. Anton Rubinstein Competition, launched by Anton Rubinstein himself at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, a 31a (BV 236). As a result, he was invited to visit and teach at the Moscow Conservatoire. Gerda and his family married in Moscow shortly after. He was warmly greeted at his first appearance in Moscow, where he appeared at Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. However, living in Moscow did not suit the Busons both financially and professionally; he was ostensibly alienated by his nationalistically inclined Russian colleagues. So, when Busoni was invited by William Steinway to teach at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, he was excited to take the challenge, particularly because Arthur Nikisch, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's conductor, had been following him since 1876, when they met together in Vienna at a concert.

Benvenuto (known as Benni) was born in Boston in 1892, but Busoni's first son, Benvenuto, was unsatisfied, but Busoni's experience at New England Conservatory was unsatisfactory. He resigned from the Conservatory and began a series of recitals around the Eastern United States after a year.

Busoni appeared at Giuseppe Verdi's opera Falstaff in Berlin in April 1893. The result was to force him to revalue the value of Italian musical traditions, which he had so far dismissed in favour of the German traditions, and particularly the models of Brahms and Wagner's orchestral techniques. Busoni immediately began to write an adulatory letter to Verdi, which he described as "Italy's most influential composer" and "one of the world's finest artists," and "one of the earliest people of our time" and "in which he evoked in me such a spirit of hope that I can... date the beginning of a new period in my artistic life from that time."

Busoni landed in Berlin in 1894, which he then regarded as his home base, except during World War II's years. In an 1889 letter to Gerda, he had described the city as "this Jewish city that I hate," irritable, idle, proud parvenu." During this period, the city was quickly expanding in population and influence, opting Berlin as the city's cultural capital, but "international virtuosi who, for practical reasons, were not so concerned with issues of fame," Busoni's friend pointed out, "the center of the musical industry [was to] produce an atmosphere that [Busoni] detested more than the deepest pool of stagnant history."

Busoni's European tours from Berlin made for a great base for Busoni's European tours. The composer had to rely on exhausting but remunerative tours as a piano virtuoso in the previous two years, but in addition, he continued to depend on his parents. Busoni's appearance and style as a recitalist had initially ignited questions in some of Europe's musical centers. He appeared at his first concerts in London in 1897, but mixed reviews were given. "He began in a way to annoy the true amateurs," the Musical Times reported. [i.e. Music-lovers] performed a ridiculous travesty of one of Bach's masterfully Organ Preludes and Fugues, but he made amends by a reversal of Chopin's Study (Op. 25) was unequal in some respects, but overall, it was interesting." The critic Arthur Dandelot wrote in Paris, "this artist has obviously high attributes of technique and charm," but he resents the addition of chromatic passages to portions of Liszt's St. François de Paule marcheant sur les flots.

Busoni's international fame soared, and he appeared in Berlin and other European capitals and regional centers (including Manchester, Birmingham, Florence, and several German and Austrian cities) during this period, as well as returning to America for four visits between 1904 and 1915. Van Dieren nabbel "a musical Ishmael" after the Biblical wanderer, who later described him as "a musical Ishmael." Antony Beaumont discusses Busoni's six Liszt recitals in Berlin of 1911 as the pinnacle of his pre-war career as a pianist.

Busoni's performing commitments in 1896 somewhat stifled his creative output during this period: "I have a great deal as a pianist, but the composer I keep for the present." Between 1901 and 1904, he wrote his epic Piano Concerto (whose five movements last more than an hour and included an offstage male chorus). The composer composed his Turandot Suite in 1904 and 1905 as incidental music for Carlo Gozzi's performance of the same name. The opera Die Brautwahl, based on a tale by E. T. A. Hoffmann, was the first opera to be held in Berlin in 1912. Busoni also started to produce solo piano works that showed a more mature style, such as the Elegies (BV 252; 1907), and the first two piano sonatinas, BV 257 (1912).

Busoni performed classical music in Berlin between 1902 and 1909, both as pianist and conductor, but in his solo recitals, he particularly promoted contemporary music from outside Germany. The collection, which was hosted at the Beethovensaal (Beethoven Hall), featured German premieres of music by Edward Elgar, Sibelius, César Franck, Claude Debussy, Vincent d'Indy, Carl Nielsen, and Béla Bartók. In 1904, Busoni's own works of the period; 1905, his Turandot Suite; and 1907, his Comedy Overture. The music of older masters was included, but often with an unexpected twist. Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto by Charles-Valentin Alkan has included references to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, for example. The concerts attracted a lot of attention, but critics made vehement criticisms. The concerts were "generally thought of as a provocation," Couling says.

Busoni began teaching at masterclasses at Weimar, Vienna, and Basel during the period. He was invited by Duke Karl-Alexander of Weimar to lead a masterclass for fifteen young virtuosi in 1900. This strategy was more amenable to Busoni than teaching in a Conservatory: the twice-weekly seminars were popular and repeated in the following year. Maud Allan, a student who later became well-known as a dancer and stayed a friend, was among the pupils. His stay in Vienna in 1907 was less enjoyable, but Ignaz Friedman, Leo Sirota, Louis Gruenberg, Józef Turczyski, and Louis Closson were among his most coveted students, but the former four were dedicatees of pieces in Buson's 1909 piano album An die Jugend. However, a discussion with the Vienna Conservatoire's Directorate, under whose auspices the classes were held, soured the mood. Busoni gave masterclasses and also performed a series of recitals in Basel in the fall of 1910.

Busoni's connections in the art world, as well as amongst musicians, have grown in the years leading up to World War I. Arnold Schoenberg, with whom Busoni had been in contact since 1903, died in Berlin in 1911 partially as a result of Busoni lobbying on his behalf. Busoni arranged a private performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire in 1913, which was attended by, among others, Willem Mengelberg, Edgard Varèse, and Artur Schnabel. Busoni had meetings with Gabriele D'Annunzio, who suggested that they collaborate in a ballet or opera in Paris in 1912. He also met with Filippo Marinetti and Umberto Boccioni, two Futurist artists.

Busoni was given the Liceo Rossini in Bologna, following a series of concerts in Northern Italy in spring 1913. He had recently migrated to Viktoria-Platz in Schöneberg, Berlin, but decided against it, vowing to spend his summers in Berlin. The attempt was ineffective. Despite occasional visits from celebrities such as Isadora Duncan, Bologna was a cultural backwater. Busoni's piano students were untalled, and he had regular disputes with the local authorities. He applied for a year of absence in order to participate in an American tour, but in fact he was never to return. Virtually his sole permanent success at the school was to have modernized its sanitary facilities. The Indian Fantasy, however, was composed another concertante work for piano and orchestra during this period. Busoni obtained the piece from a book he borrowed from his former student, ethnomusicologist Natalie Curtis Burlin during his 1910 tour of the United States, based on melodies and rhythms from many American Indian tribes; the piece is based on tunes and rhythms; he derived them from a book he borrowed from his former student, Natalie Curtis Burlin. In Berlin, Busoni debuted as soloist in March 1914.

Busoni was in Berlin from June 1914 to January 1915. Busoni, a native of a non-Western country (Italy) living in Germany, was not concerned at first about the outbreak of war, at first. During this period, he began to work on the libretto for his forthcoming opera Doktor Faust. He left for a concert tour of the United States in January 1915, his last visit to the country. During this time, he continued work on his Bach edition, as well as his interpretation of the Goldberg Variations. It was Italy that began the war upon the composer's return to Europe. Busoni had also chosen to base himself in Switzerland, from 1915. He found local supporters in Volkmar Andreae (conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra) and Philipp Jarnach in Zurich. José Vianna da Motta, José Vianna da Motta's companion, also taught piano in Geneva at this time. Busoni's orchestra performed with Andreae, and Andreae's orchestra accompanied him on tours. Jarnach, who was 23 years old when he first met Busoni in 1915, became Busoni's indispensable assistant, as well as arranging piano scores of his operas; Busoni referred to him as his famulus. Busoni had more research into Doktor Faust and had written the libretto of his one-act opera Arlecchino when he was in America, and he had written the libretto of his one-act opera Arlecchino. He made it in Zurich and converted his earlier Turandot's to a one-act piece, and gave it a complete evening at the theater. In May 1917, the two were first seen together in Zurich.

Busoni met with artist Boccioni, who painted his portrait; Busoni was seriously wounded when Boccioni was killed (in a riding accident) a few months later; a few months later, she wrote a defense column that was highly critical of war. Busoni's 1907 work A New Esthetic of Music led to a virulent counter-attack from the German composer Hans Pfitzner and a long war of words. Busoni continued to experiment with microtones, and he said he had developed some harmonium reeds tuned in third-tones, and that he had "worked out the theory of a two-rows of tones separated by a semitone."

Busoni soon found his circumstances restricting after he spoke with several other well-known Swiss artists during the war (including Stefan Zweig, who noted his heavy drinking, and James Joyce). He revived concert tours in England, Paris, and Italy following the war's end. He spent time in London with composer Kaikhosru Sorabji, who performed his Piano Sonata No. He had planned it to Busoni) but he didn't have one for him (he had dedicated it to Busoni). Busoni was prompted enough to write a letter of recommendation for Sorabji. Leo Kestenberg, Busoni's former student and later a minister of Culture in the German Weimar Republic, was delighted to return to Germany with the promise of a teaching post and productions of his operas.

Busoni returned to Viktoria-Platz 11 in 1920, after he had left in 1915. His health began to deteriorate, but he continued to give concerts. His greatest worry was to finish Doktor Faust, the libretto of which had been published in Germany in 1918. "Like a subterranean river," Faust's music roars and flows in the depths of my aspirations in 1921.

Berlin was the center of the Weimar Republic's musical tradition. Busoni's operas, as well as his operas, were regularly scheduled. He continued to perform, despite the fact that he suffered with hyperinflation in Germany, requiring him to travel through England. In May 1922, he appeared in Berlin for his last appearance as a pianist, and he appeared at Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. Kurt Weill, Wladimir Vogel, and Robert Blum were among his composition students in Berlin, and Busoni also had contact with Varèse, Stravinsky, conductor Hermann Scherchen, and others during those years.

Busoni died in Berlin on July 27, 1924, officially from heart disease, but inflamed kidneys and overwork contributed to his death. At his death, Doktor Faust's unfinished work was unfinished, and he was first introduced in Berlin in 1925, by Jarnach. Busoni's Berlin flat was destroyed in an air-raid in 1943, and many of his possessions and papers were missing or stolen. The site is commemorated by a plaque on the site to honor his residence. Gerda Busoni's wife died in Sweden in 1956. Benni and his son, Benni, who had lived in Berlin during World War II, died there in 1976. Lello, the son of the illustrator, died in New York in 1962.

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