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THE DEATH OF BUSONI
Famous Pianist and Composer Passes Away in Berlin
Ferruccio (Benvenuto) Busoni, pianist and composer, died Sunday, July 27, at his home in Berlin, age fifty-eight years. He was born at Empoli, near Florence, Italy, April 1, 1866, the son of Ferdinando Busoni, a professional clarinetist, and Mme. Weiss-Busoni, a pianist. He studied music with his father and mother and at the conservatory at Graz (Austria). He was only fifteen years old when he made his first concert tour of his native land and was elected a member of the Royal Philharmonic Academy of Bologna. His career has been truly international, although a great deal of it has been passed in, or associated with, Germany. In 1886 he was in Leipsic. Then in 1888-9 he was professor of piano at Helsingfors Conservatory, Finland. In 1890 he won the Rubinstein prize for composition and piano playing and in the same year became professor of piano at the Imperial Conservatory in Moscow; next he came to America for the first time and was professor of piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston from 1891 to 1893. In 1895 he made a concert tour of Belgium, Denmark and ITaly, which was highly successful. After that he settled in Berlin as a teacher, and has made that city his headquarters since that time, although he went to Vienna for one year, 1907-08, succeeding Sauer as head of the master class at the Vienna Conservatory 1907-08, and also held the post of director of the Liceo Musicale in Bologna 1913-15. This happy chance kept him from getting into trouble in Germany when the war started, but his fellow countrymen shied over his long German affiliation, so he retired into Switzerland until the end of the war, returning to Berlin after that and accepting a position as professor in the High School of Music, Charlottenburg. Other notable incidents in his career were a series of orchestra concerts in Berlin, 1905-07, when he conducted programs of early music little known or seldom heard, and his concert tours of the United States in 1909-11.
Although the world has failed to find much of interest in his works, Busoni was from his youth on more interested in composition than in playing the piano. Probably his best known single work is his transcription for piano of the Bach Chaconne. He made transcriptions of many Bach organ works and edited the Well Tempered Clavichord for Breitkopf and Haertel, as well as making a complete edition of Liszt's works for the same house. His best known opera was Die Brautwahl. An Indian fantasy for piano and orchestra attracted some attention when it was new. His compositions were numerous and he wrote in many different forms. He was extremely interested in the advance of music and wrote two books, Entwurf einer neuen Asthetik der Tonkunst, and Versuch einer organischen Klaviernotenschrift.
He is survived by his wife, whose maiden name was Gera Sjorstrand, daughter of a prominent Helsingfors sculptor. There were no children.
