He was an inspiration to the composers of the Second Viennese School. Yet it is as a composer of music for piano that he produced his most important work. The pieces recorded here give a good picture of the range of his compositions for piano. Busoni's pupil Egon Petri performed these pieces on the radio in 1959. In his hands they sound like rugged chips off the Central European block.
Rhythms are more flowing and syncopated.
Almost a transformation. Each Elegy is a miniature tone poem imbued with the depth of Liszt's music at its best. It is not Liszt, however, but Bach with whom Busoni is most closely associated. Busoni wrote numerous adaptations and transcriptions of Bach's music, none more famous than the Chaccone . Jeni Slotchiver's interpretation is quite different from Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's performance on EMI recorded in 1948.