In spite of powerful advocates, Busoni has never gained
either that love of the public which may attach itself to only a few
works but which nevertheless ensures that the composer is a household
name, nor yet that trust which will lead a substantial band of followers
to go "blindfold" to any work of his which happens to be performed.
He is hard to pin down, and the ambivalence of his "musical nationality"
– he was born in Italy of an Italian father and a mother with German
ancestry and spent most of his life in Germany – provided both countries
with a good excuse for leaving investigation of him to the other. He
worked hard to get rid of the Bach-Busoni image and posthumously lip-service
at least has acknowledged him as a composer in his own right. Of the
works here, only the "Bach-Busoni" dates from later than his
twentieth year, so it is surely unfair to emphasise too strongly that
this is in fact the piece which stands most chance of being heard in
concert programmes.
Perhaps the first five minutes find both arranger and
pianist going a little cautiously, Busoni keeping to fairly "standard"
transcription techniques and Harden inclined to play as if it were "real"
Bach rather than a romantic dressing-up. Thereafter Busoni’s invention
expands notably, creating a striking array of romantic sounds (even
verging on the Debussian at times, but how much Debussy did he know
in 1892?) and Harden seems fired by it, playing with both command and
real conviction. I did wonder at first if it wasn’t all a little bass-heavy
(whether due to pianist, instrument, acoustics or the recording itself,
I couldn’t quite decide), but I found this impression dispelled as the
disc went on and my final verdict was of a rich yet not overbearing
sound-quality.
The Etude en forme de variation begins rather
nondescriptly but this, too, reveals unsuspected poetic depths later
(it lasts 9 minutes), with some quite surprising harmonies suggesting
an out-of-phase, overcast Brahms. Again, Harden gains strength with
the music.
The humour of the Variations on Kommt ein Vogel
geflugen, referred to in Richard Whitehouse’s informative notes
(in three languages), did not really come across to me but, again, I
found some of the later variations fascinating. The C major Variations
and the Inno Variations are very early indeed (1873 and 1874
respectively) and they remain fairly trite in their material, but the
young boy showed a remarkable command of the piano.
The Chopin Variations are a pianistic feat for both
composer and performer (commandingly brought off) but I hardly feel
they are going to enter the regular repertoire. The early variations
did nothing to convince me that Busoni was not elaborating gratuitously
on a piece already complete in itself, but as he leaves the familiar
contours of Chopin’s theme behind it is easier to follow him. There
are some poetic moments, particularly when Bach-Busoni seems only just
round the corner, but also some banal ones, and in one variation "Mary
had a little lamb" sounds to be not far away. This is an interesting
disc, though I suggest that if Busoni enters the standard repertoire
it will not be for any of the pieces here. Still, given the dedicated
performances and rich recording it might be worth paying the modest
Naxos to follow this series through, disc by disc as it comes out, and
make up your own minds about this important but still controversial
composer.
Christopher Howell
Wolf Harden (pianoforte)