Ferruccio BUSONI (1866-1924)
Piano Concerto, Op. 39 [68:41]
Berceuse élégiaque, Op. 42 [8:07]
Turandot Suite, Op. 41 [24:18]
Sarabande and Cortège - Two Studies for Doktor Faust, Op. 51 [19:01]
Sonatina ad usum infantis (Sonatina No. 3) [7:39]
Ten Variations on Chopin’s Prélude in C minor [8:52]
Turandots Frauengemach (Intermezzo) [3:27]
Sonatina No. 6 (Chamber Fantasy on Bizet’s Carmen) [7:33]
John Ogdon (piano), Thomas Adès (piano)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Daniell Revenaugh
New Philharmonia/Frederick Prausnitz
Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala/Riccardo Muti
rec. 1967-1993. London, Milan. ADD/DD
EMI CLASSICS 4563242 [76:56 + 71:11]
It can only be Busoni’s ‘difficult to place’ reputation
that has held back his music from the concert hall and recording studio. Italian
by birth and German by musical training, Busoni was much admired by progressives
such as Schoenberg, Weill and Varèse. The effect of these factors was
exacerbated by his pan-European career as a pianist, teacher and critic which
took him as far afield as Russia, Finland and Switzerland. Even allowing for
these factors the unsettled, uneasy, quality of his music has not stood the
test of time well.
Thankfully, this bumper double-CD set will go a long way towards restoring
Busoni’s reputation. It includes his most celebrated orchestral works,
and several shorter piano pieces which reveal his intelligent, if idiomatic,
writing for the instrument. The downside is that the contents of the discs
are culled from a variety of earlier recordings dating from 1967 onwards,
with three different orchestras and conductors and two piano soloists. This
rules out a uniformity of interpretation and does not help the listener build
up a clear understanding of the composer’s oeuvre. But what we have
here is well worth exploring.
The first disc is the better of the two, dominated by Busoni’s huge
piano concerto of 1903-04. Lasting well over an hour, and calling for a male
chorus in the fifth and final movement, it is a massive testament to Busoni’s
mastery of orchestral writing, structural control and harmonic invention.
Clearly influenced by Brahms, Liszt and even Beethoven, the concerto also
points towards the more angular, ironic style of Prokofiev - whose own first
piano concerto was premiered around the same time, in 1903. John Ogdon manages
to pull all the concerto’s disparate elements together, presenting the
score with brilliant panache and a certain sense of unease. He is ably supported
by the Royal Philharmonic under Daniell Revenaugh. The Abbey Road studio acoustics
still sound, over forty years on, clear and resonant.
The filler work on the first disc is Busoni’s 1909 Berceuse élégiaque.
Re-worked from an earlier piano piece to commemorate the death of his mother,
the elegy moves in a shifting web of harmonic patterns that seem to pre-figure
his magnum opus, the unfinished opera Doktor Faustus. Two orchestral
studies on the second disc - Sarabande and Cortège - represent
Busoni’s six years of interrupted work on the opera. Again, Revenaugh
and the RPO explore the subtle range of colours in evidence in these pieces.
The only disappointment is that more excerpts from the opera could not be
included. But if sales point to a revival of interest, Busoni’s master
work might be headed for a timely new recording.
John-Pierre Joyce
This bumper set will go a long way towards restoring Busoni’s reputation.