These works bear little or no resemblance to the Bach-influenced gigantism of Ferruccio Busoni's piano music. None is well known, and an average listener might be hard pressed even to guess Busoni as the composer. Of course, for Busoni fans, stylistic incongruity is all part of the fun, and they can confidently add this collection of oddities to their Busoni shelves; Italian conductor Francesco La Vecchia, leading the Rome Symphony Orchestra, has plenty of experience with the material, and the various soloists are all more ...
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These works bear little or no resemblance to the Bach-influenced gigantism of Ferruccio Busoni's piano music. None is well known, and an average listener might be hard pressed even to guess Busoni as the composer. Of course, for Busoni fans, stylistic incongruity is all part of the fun, and they can confidently add this collection of oddities to their Busoni shelves; Italian conductor Francesco La Vecchia, leading the Rome Symphony Orchestra, has plenty of experience with the material, and the various soloists are all more than adequate. Except for the Gesang vom Reigen der Geister, Op. 47, which curiously enough has Native American subject matter, the pieces here mostly take off from the Mendelssohn/Weber layer of 19th-century music. The exception is the purely comic Rondō arlecchinesco, Op. 46, which broadens out into a wordless tenor patter song at the end. (The work was composed as a kind of trial for Busoni's one-act opera Arlecchino.) The quite lovely Clarinet Concertino in B flat major, Op. 48,...
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