Piano Works Vol.4 : Harden

FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1866-1924)
Piano Music vol. 4

J. S. Bach, arr. Busoni: Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532

Busoni: Elegien, K. 249
No. 1 Nach der Wendung
No. 2 All’Italia!
No. 3 Meine Seele bangt und hofft zu Dir
No. 4 Turandots Frauengemach
No. 5 Die Nachtlichen
No. 6 Erscheinung

Busoni: Berceuse, ‘Elegie No. 7’, K. 252
Busoni: Fantasia nach J.S. Bach, K. 253
Busoni: Toccata, K. 287 (Preludio ? Fantasia ? Ciaccona)

Wolf Harden, piano

Digital Recording: 05/2007

Performance occupied much of Busoni’s attention until the turn of the twentieth century, when composition began to assume a new importance in his career. Busoni regarded his Elegien as the point where he discovered his true identity as a composer. Even at his most radical, however, Busoni never rejected what had gone before; the Elegien alternate between new works and transcriptions of older pieces. Drawing on Bach organ pieces, Fantasia after J.S. Bach may sound backwardlooking in context, but its concept points determinedly towards the future. Toccata was completed while Busoni was engaged in earnest on his crowning achievement, the music-drama Doktor Faust, whose essence pervades this most virtuosic yet also aggressive of the composer’s later piano works. ( NAXOS )