Early years
Studies in Graz
Liepzig and the First Transcriptions
Helsinki, Moscow and New England Conservatories
Berlin and W.W.I
Bologna and Late works
 

Ferruccio Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Busoni was born in Empoli, near Florence. on April 1, 1866. His father, Fernando was a clarinettist, his mother Anna Weiss -Busoni a talented pianist of German origin. The youth showed great talent for music and received instruction from his parents. His first public performance was in Treiste prior to his eighth birthday. He was giving solo piano recitals by age 10. No less a  figure than Anton Rubinstein took notice of the child and followed Busoni's career over the ensuing years. By his first international concert in Vienna at age 10, Busoni was fluent in both Italian and German. Eduard Hanslick also took note of the ten year olds abilities, writing in the 'Neue freie Presse' of his naive pleasure in music and lack of indulgent attachments.

At age 12 the family moved to Graz in Austria, where the twelve year old had his Stabat Mater performed. He undertook studies with Wilhelm Mayer, also known under the compositional nom de plume of A. Remy. Works of this time include the Ave Maria settings Op.1 & 2 and the Cinq Pièces for piano Op.3, which were also published near the same time. He was a member of the Bologna Reale Accademia Filarmonica at age 15. His Il sabato del villaggio oratorio based on Leopardi was given in 1883 at the academy. Next the young man moved again, to Vienna.  He befriended Brahms  and Goldmark. His Op. 16 and 17 Studies (1883/84) are dedicated to Brahms. He set some of Goldmark's Opera Merlin as a piano fantasia and assisted in preparing the vocal score of the opera.

Busoni then moved to Leipzig in 1886 on Brahms recommendation. Here he met such renowned composers as Reinecke,  Tchaikovsky, Greig, Sinding, Mahler and Delius. His Second String Quartet,  in D Minor Op. 26 was mainly composed and finished in Liepzig. His fame as a pianist grew. This period also saw the first in a long series of Bach transcriptions. This aspect of Busoni's career is the most controversial, as he was heavily criticized for making piano arrangements of the organ pieces. The first was the Prelude and Fugue in D Major BWV 532 dates from 1888. It should be noted that the transcriptions are one of Busoni's great and long lasting contributions, and that these are the most commonly performed of Busoni works.

On to the Helsinki Conservatory with the recommendation of Reimann. He became aquatinted with Järnefelt and Sibelius.  In 1890 married the Swede Gerda Sjöstrand. In the same year he won the Rubinstein Prize for his Konzertstücke for Piano and Orchestra Op 31a, gaining the attention of Reger. Busoni was offered a professorship in Moscow. He declined, in part to pursue his career as a pianist in Boston and New York, also due to his own feelings, or lack there of, towards Russian Music. He gave lessons in piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

In 1894 Busoni moved to Berlin. The cosmopolitan aspects of the city greatly appealed to him and this was his home the rest of his life. He developed his love for Liszt and contemporary music in general and established a series of courses in Weimar in 1901-2. He established a series of concerts in 1902 which featured contemporary pieces,  a good many world and German premiers. Conversely his own solo recitals featured more traditional works. Compositions by Bartók, Debussy, Fauré, Delius, Sibelius, Franck, d'Indy and himself were among those given at the concerts.

In 1907 Busoni's famous treastie 'Sketch of a  New Aesthetic in Music' was written.  Many conservative composers as Pfitzner took great exception to Busoni's ideas.

Busoni developed his love for drama, writing the incidental music to Grozzi's Turandot in 1907 (?1911).  He later took the entire play and created the more famous opera of the same name in 1917, some 10 years before Pucinni. Another opera based on E.T.A. Hoffmann, Die Brautwahl was performed in 1912 with much praise.

During World War I Busoni left Berlin and travelled to the United States, finding both the combination of the war and the US to be more despairing. His Rondo Arlecchinesco is based on music from the initial attempt at setting Arlecchino.  Verdi's Falstaff first seen in 1893 and a private performance of Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire in 1913 both played a role is Busoni's attention for things Italian. His brief stint at the Conservative in Bologna in 1914 - 15 was unfortunately uneventful, the institution finding Busoni too intellectually rigorous.

The best example of this new emphasis is referred to by Busoni himself as Comedie dell'arte. The opera Arlecchino was completed in 1916 to Busoni's own libretto. Arlecchino and Turandot were given as a double bill in Zurich on May 11, 1917 with the descriptive title La nouva comedie dell'arte. After the war he returned to Berlin giving concerts and holding Master Classes at the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

His great dramatic masterpiece Doktor Faust was started in this year, although some reports have it at he was considering setting the Faust story as early as 1906. Left unfinished at his death in 1924, but completed by his student / colleague Jarnach. The opera was premiered in Dresden in 1925 under Fritz Busch. This version of the Faust story is a construct of Busoni's own. He steered away from the Goethe and Lenau settings, and used the ancient German puppet play as his starting point. While some aspects of the Goethe and Lenau settings are present in Busoni's libretto, the ending is unique. The opera concludes not with a Christian redemption view but one based on Schopenhauer's philosophy that  personal 'Will' is the immortal aspect of a person. The opera is famed among a handful of works based on the Faust legend, often referred to more for its intellectual properties and is seldom performed.
 

 
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