Ferruccio Busoni

Italian composer, pianist, and teacher who wrote five operas and many exceptional works such as the Pianoforte Concerto in five movements, 1903-1904. Some of his best works were written in 1890-1905, including the Violin Sonata, and the Comedy Overture, 1897.

Busoni's father, Ferdinando, was a clarinet player of reckless and unreliable character, as well as a severe taskmaster. Along with Busoni's mother, Anna Weiss, Ferdinando taught the young child, who traveled with his parents in southern Austria. His early childhood was spent with his grandfather at Trieste, making his first appearance as a pianist at age seven, and composing at age nine. He was a member of the Academy of Bologna at 15.

In his youth, Busoni had been a voluminous composer, publishing large quantities of musical works. In 1889, he became a pianoforte teacher at the Conservatory in Helsingfors, and as a pianist, had few equals. He went to America in 1891, to teach at the New England Conservatory, then returned to settle in Berlin, in 1894. He accepted the directorship of the Liceo Rossini at Bologna, 1913, which was a disappointment for his career. Busoni sailed for America again, in 1915, but returned to Europe after nine months. He produced the two operas, Arrlechino and Turandot, 11 May 1917, at Zurich, and went to London and Paris after the war was over. By this time he was broken in health, and returned to Berlin in 1920. His pupil, Philipp Jarnach, completed the last opera, Doctor Faust. It was first produced at Dresden on 21 May 1925.

Busoni was a thinker and philosopher, whose pupils considered him kind and thoughtful. He had a warmly compassionate temperament, and uncontainable humor.

He met Gerda Sjostrand, the daughter of a Swedish sculptor, in 1889 and they married the following year. They lived together for 34 years of marital happiness. Busoni died of kidney disease on 27 June 1924, aged 58, in Berlin, Germany.