Songs (assorted)

Outside of the world of virtuoso piano literature, the name of Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) is rarely encountered apart from his famous piano arrangement of Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor, originally for solo violin. Indeed, so singular was his reputation in some circles, and so strong his connection to music of the past, that “Bach-Busoni” was occasionally mistaken to be Ferruccio’s actual surname! The prodigious only child of two professional musicians, Busoni’s full name (Ferruccio Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Busoni) reveals the weighty expectations his parents held for their gifted son. Fortunately, young Ferruccio was up to the challenge and fast became one of the most brilliant pianists and composers of his era. He met Liszt and Brahms, became good friends with Sibelius, and taught a new generation of composers, including Kurt Weill, Percy Grainger, and Edgard Varèse.
His original works often look to the past, to Bach specifically. They are technically complex and difficult to perform. (You may have heard his Fantasia Contrappuntistica at today’s noon concert.) In his vocal music, Busoni discovers a passionate lyricism supported by rich textures from the piano. The first song, Wer hat … erdacht (1880), resembles Mahler at times but generally stays within the established late-romantic affect of Brahms. The other two songs, from 1918, are based on passages from a tavern scene in Goethe’s Faust. From their date, one would be correct to presume these Goethe songs to be more angular, more strained. However, nowhere in these “drinking songs” does Busoni depart radically from the German lieder tradition established by Schubert a century prior.

(c) Jason Stell