Is there no end to the transcriptions Ferruccio Busoni made of the music of J.S. Bach? There must be: after all, Busoni did take time off from transcribing to become one of the most celebrated pianists -- as well as one of the least appreciated composers -- of the fin de siècle. But when it comes to recording Busoni's own works, pianists are far more likely to choose a selection of his viscerally virtuosic Bach transcriptions than his intensely cerebral Fantasia contrappuntistica.So it is here in the debut recording by ...
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Is there no end to the transcriptions Ferruccio Busoni made of the music of J.S. Bach? There must be: after all, Busoni did take time off from transcribing to become one of the most celebrated pianists -- as well as one of the least appreciated composers -- of the fin de siècle. But when it comes to recording Busoni's own works, pianists are far more likely to choose a selection of his viscerally virtuosic Bach transcriptions than his intensely cerebral Fantasia contrappuntistica.So it is here in the debut recording by Italian pianist Maurizio Baglini. There's the titanic three-movement Toccata in C major; then the demonic Toccata and Fugue in D minor; then the four selected Chorale Preludes opening with the epiphanic "Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland" and closing with the ecstatic "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"; and then, finally, the alpha and omega of the art of transcription, the transcendent Chaconne. And Baglini is consistently up to the challenge. He has the big tone, the virtuoso...
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