Busoni, Ferruccio

Busoni, Ferruccio (Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto)

(born April 1, 1866, Empoli, Tuscany—died July 27, 1924, Berlin, Ger.) Italian-born German composer and pianist. He first performed in public at age 7, and at 12 he conducted his own Stabat Mater. He taught in Helsinki, Moscow, and Boston before settling permanently in Berlin in 1894. He won fame as a virtuoso pianist and gave premieres of the works of major composers. His most celebrated work in his lifetime, the opera Die Brautwahl (1910), was followed by the operas Arlecchino (1916) and Turandot (1917), but the unfinished and posthumously produced Doktor Faust is regarded as his masterpiece. Of his orchestral works, his piano concerto (1904) is most widely performed. His many piano pieces include the Fantasia contrappuntistica (1910), six sonatinas (1910–20), and arrangements of organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach.