Parallel Lives: Liszt & Busoni

Parallel Lives: Liszt & Busoni By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Parallel Lives: Liszt & Busoni, performed on Dec 11, 2011 at Carnegie Hall. The piano was central to the musical culture of the 19th century. It defined that culture’s aesthetics and perception of music’s meaning and logic. During the first decades, within Beethoven’s…

Ferruccia Busoni, Piano Concerto By Byron Adams Written for the concert Parallel Lives: Liszt & Busoni, performed on Dec 11, 2011 at Carnegie Hall. Ferruccio Busoni was a protean figure: a pianist of fearsome virtuosity, a marvelous composer, an influential conductor, and a subtle writer. Like his great hero, Franz Liszt, Busoni’s magisterial ability as…

Franz Liszt, Faust Symphony By Peter Laki Written for the concert Parallel Lives: Liszt & Busoni, performed on Dec 11, 2011 at Carnegie Hall. The unknown authors of the broadside The History of Dr. Johann Faust, written around 1580 immortalizing a real-life figure, never suspected they had created a true modern myth—a story that was…