Holger Groschopp – Busoni: Piano Works (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Ferruccio Busoni was undoubtedly what can be termed a ‘child prodigy’. His maturity as a young pianist can only be indirectly evidenced by contemporary reports. But in his early compositions, his astonishing command of the metier can be assessed directly. In particular, he demonstrated a sure instinct for part writing and counterpoint, before he had received systematic teaching in these disciplines. Busoni connoisseurs will detect unexpected parallels to the works of his mature period; their germ cells, as it were. And the common music lover may find joy in a wealth of piano pieces, some of which at least need not shy any comparison with Schumann, Mendelssohn, Reinecke and Grieg.

This collection of Busoni transcriptions, while far from complete, offers a number of previously unrecorded curiosities chiming in teasingly amid rarities and standards, in performances ranging from genial to towering. As a glance at the headnote tells, the degree of Busoni’s involvement with the music of others is often difficult to pinpoint. The Sonatina sopra Carmen , for instance, is usually classified with Busoni’s original works, though, at first blush, it seems to belong with the opera transcriptions. But what Busoni has done with the Bizet tunes—and with Carmen —is to propound an allusive essay on passion and death transcending the materials he has taken in a manner similar to contemporary literary techniques in the works of Eliot (e.g., the adaptation of Dante in The Waste Land ), Pound (the translation of Homer kicking off the Cantos ), and Joyce. It certainly does not belong with the potboiler potpourri on Goldmark’s Merlin , or with the delightful fantasy on themes from Peter Cornelius’s Barber of Bagdad , nor—again—with the 18-year-old’s straight and effective transcription of Siegfried’s so-called Funeral March from Götterdämmerung . Busoni’s transcription of the Liszt “Ad nos” Fantasy and Fugue for organ—while he pianofies, so to speak, some accompanying figures—is a more or less straight transcription; but with the first Mephisto Waltz he encountered the massive stumbling block of Liszt’s having already rendered the symphonic Tanz in der Dorfschenke as a stunning piano thriller. Busoni, therefore, made his own transcription from the orchestral score—a version Horowitz occasionally raided for his own idiosyncratic performances. In the familiar Chaconne, Busoni made a magnificent piano piece of that number from Bach’s Partita in D Minor for solo violin—a banal fact worth mentioning only to note that Leopold Godowsky produced whole albums of piano works spun off from Bach’s suites for solo violin and solo cello which are also worth hearing, as well as fascinating to play. The noncommittally titled Grosse Fuge is the kernel of what would be elaborated as the Fantasia contrappuntistica . And so on.

Tracklist:
1. Holger Groschopp – No. 1, Preparazione alla festa (02:49)
2. Holger Groschopp – No. 2, Marcia trionfale (04:32)
3. Holger Groschopp – No. 3, In chiesa (02:19)
4. Holger Groschopp – No. 4, La fiera (03:36)
5. Holger Groschopp – No. 5, Danza (03:40)
6. Holger Groschopp – No. 6, Notte (04:44)
7. Holger Groschopp – Marcia di paesani e contadine, Op. 32, BV 193 (06:04)
8. Holger Groschopp – No. 1 in C Major (01:56)
9. Holger Groschopp – No. 2 in A Minor (03:00)
10. Holger Groschopp – No. 3 in G Major (01:43)
11. Holger Groschopp – No. 4 in E Minor (02:34)
12. Holger Groschopp – No. 5 in D Major (01:47)
13. Holger Groschopp – No. 6 in B Minor (01:20)
14. Holger Groschopp – No. 7 in A Major (01:55)
15. Holger Groschopp – No. 8 in F-Sharp Minor (01:42)
16. Holger Groschopp – No. 9 in E Major (01:21)
17. Holger Groschopp – No. 10 in C-Sharp Minor (02:13)
18. Holger Groschopp – No. 11 in B Major (01:50)
19. Holger Groschopp – No. 12 in G-Sharp Minor (02:13)
20. Holger Groschopp – No. 13 in F-Sharp Major (02:21)
21. Holger Groschopp – No. 14 in E-Flat Minor (02:56)
22. Holger Groschopp – No. 15 in D-Flat Major (02:06)
23. Holger Groschopp – No. 16 in B-Flat Minor (00:55)
24. Holger Groschopp – No. 17 in A-Flat Major (02:00)
25. Holger Groschopp – No. 18 in F Minor (02:07)
26. Holger Groschopp – No. 19 in E-Flat Major (01:11)
27. Holger Groschopp – No. 20 in C Minor (01:57)
28. Holger Groschopp – No. 21 in B-Flat Major (03:19)
29. Holger Groschopp – No. 22 in G Minor (00:59)
30. Holger Groschopp – No. 23 in F Major (01:12)
31. Holger Groschopp – No. 24 in D Minor (01:16)
32. Holger Groschopp – Scherzo (02:13)
33. Holger Groschopp – No. 1, Preludio (01:37)
34. Holger Groschopp – No. 2, Minuetto (02:39)
35. Holger Groschopp – No. 3, Gavotte (02:28)
36. Holger Groschopp – No. 4, Étude (01:42)
37. Holger Groschopp – No. 5, Gigue (02:03)
38. Holger Groschopp – Minuetto in F Major, Op. 14, BV 77 (02:19)
39. Holger Groschopp – I. Canzone villereccia del mattino (02:03)
40. Holger Groschopp – II. La caccia (01:11)
41. Holger Groschopp – III. L’orgia (02:10)
42. Holger Groschopp – IV. Il ritorno (03:24)
43. Holger Groschopp – V. Preghiera della sera (02:00)
44. Holger Groschopp – I. Preludio (01:15)
45. Holger Groschopp – II. Fuga (03:33)
46. Holger Groschopp – Gavotta, Op. 25, BV 89 (04:07)
47. Holger Groschopp – No. 1, Duello (02:07)
48. Holger Groschopp – No. 2, Klein Zaches (03:04)
49. Holger Groschopp – No. 3, La Caverna di Steenfoll (03:52)
50. Holger Groschopp – Menuetto capriccioso in C Major, Op. 61, BV 124 (02:32)
51. Holger Groschopp – No. 1, Minuetto (02:52)
52. Holger Groschopp – No. 2, Gavotte (02:59)
53. Holger Groschopp – No. 3, Gigue (01:51)
54. Holger Groschopp – No. 4, Bourrée (04:04)
55. Holger Groschopp – Gavotte in F Minor, Op. 70, BV 152 (03:05)
56. Holger Groschopp – No. 1, Minuetto (02:31)
57. Holger Groschopp – No. 2, Sonatina (03:29)
58. Holger Groschopp – No. 3, Gigue (02:02)
59. Holger Groschopp – I. Preludio (02:45)
60. Holger Groschopp – II. Fuga (04:06)
61. Holger Groschopp – Scherzo, Op. 4, BV 197 No. 1 (05:21)
62. Holger Groschopp – I. Prélude (02:27)
63. Holger Groschopp – II. Fugue (02:48)
64. Holger Groschopp – Scène de ballet, Op. 6, BV 197 No. 3 (03:42)
65. Holger Groschopp – Danza notturna, Op. 13, BV 189 (03:48)
66. Holger Groschopp – No. 1, Dama (01:39)
67. Holger Groschopp – No. 2, Cavaliere (01:16)
68. Holger Groschopp – No. 3, Paggio (01:25)
69. Holger Groschopp – No. 4, Guerriero (01:47)
70. Holger Groschopp – No. 5, Astrologo (02:10)
71. Holger Groschopp – No. 6, Trovatore (03:34)
72. Holger Groschopp – Improvvisata per piano (04:14)