Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Bach/Busoni

Chaconne in D minor BWV 10045

 

Ferruccio Busoni, who was born at Empoli (near Florence) in 1866 and died in Berlin in 1924, was a formidable pianist and a composer of the highest order. Throughout his life, his admiration for Mozart and, above all, Bach, was boundless, and it was through his study and analysis of these composers’ works that he developed his concept of a new classicism – in other words, a form of musical humanism aimed towards the New but also solidly based upon tradition; this was meant as an alternative to the dissolution of tonality and to the pessimism of the Second Viennese School. Busoni made numerous piano arrangements of works by Bach that were originally intended for other instruments. Of these, the most famous is undoubtedly the memorable piano transcription of the Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004, for solo violin, and despite the many criticisms aimed at it, especially in recent years, it remains, even today, a mainstay of the piano repertoire.

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Performance