"a formidable pianist" -Chicago Sun-Times
Seven Elegies by Ferruccio Busoni
Seven Elegies by Ferruccio Busoni
Busoni: Seven Elegies for Piano (1907/1909) [44:06]
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) Chaconne in D minor, BWV 1004 (arr. for piano (1897) by Busoni) [16:07] David Rubinstein (piano) rec. 13 April 2007 MUSICUS 1001 [60:30]
"What an astonishingly varied set of pieces...and what a challenge it sets for the pianist...A fine disk of, possibly, Busoni’s most approachable piano work in the modern style, in performances worthy of the music." -Bob Briggs in MusicWeb International (February 2008)
"David Rubinstein is an outstanding pianist with a big sound, a muscular technique, and a powerful attack. Better than that, he has a keen mind that appreciates the austere but revolutionary genius of Busoni's music and above all the death defying intensity of the Chaconne transcription." - James Leonard in All Music Guide" (June 2008)
David Rubinstein is featuring performances of this major original piano work on several concerts throughout the current season, coupled with original works of J.S. Bach. His recent recording of the complete set of Seven Elegies is available on the Musicus Recordings label.
Although much of the concert going public is acquainted with Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) as a transcriber of the works of Bach and as a great concert pianist in the tradition of Liszt and Anton Rubinstein, he is less often thought of as a great composer in his own right. This is despite a number of significant recordings such as Turandot, Doktor Faust, Fantasia Contrappuntistica (1910) and the gigantic Piano Concerto (1904).
"The function of the creative artist," Busoni wrote, "consists in making laws, not in following laws already made. He who follows such laws ceases to be a creator...Never, never, can one set up a rule when it is a question of art. Every stroke of the pen demands its own conditions. . . . In new works one avoids the old mistakes but makes new ones again, because the problem is always changing. With the beginning of every new thing one is timid and awkward again."
Busoni wrote that his mystic Elegies were a milestone in his development. Busoni's source of inspiration were the Elegies of Goethe. They refute the common meaning of elegy as a song of lamentation and instead point to the richer sense in which Goethe used it. Busoni's Elegies are mystical, visionary, arcane, esoteric, and traditional - all at the same time. Audiences familiar with the music of Liszt, Debussy and Schoenberg will find much to admire in these rarely heard piano works. The Elegies actually occupy a middle ground between the late-Romantic tendencies of Busoni's first decades as a composer and the modernistic sound-world of his mature compositions. The seventh Elegy (Berceuse) was actually added in 1909. In many respects it is similar to the Berceuse Heroique for orchestra, but it is not a transcription of the Berceuse Heroique, as many commentators have stated erroneously.
Final chord of Elegy #6
SAMPLE PROGRAM
Bach: Partita I in B flat
Bach: Italian Concerto
Bach-Busoni: Chaconne in D minor
Busoni: Elegies
