Ferruccio Busoni composed four suites for orchestra: an early Symphonic Suite, Op. 25, the Turandot Suite, the Armored (“Geharnischte”) Suite, and the suite from the opera Die Brautwahl. Of the four, only the Turandot Suite has achieved anything like popularity, largely owing to its oriental flavor and surprising use of the English folk tune “Greensleeves” in its best known movement. The two suites on this disc are, in fact, CD premieres, and major additions to the Busoni discography. The Armored Suite contains a particularly impressive “Funeral Monument”, one of the first in what was to become a number of orchestral and piano elegies, culminating in the Sarabande and Cortège from Dr. Faustus. Otherwise, the music shows an obvious debt to Liszt, Brahms, and Wagner, but as always with Busoni, the mix is unconventional and never quite what you would expect.
The suite from Die Brautwahl is colorful and strange (in a good sense), particularly in its two central movements, “Mystic music” and “Hebraic music”. There is a certain ambivalence of attitude about all of Busoni’s work that makes it difficult to pigeon-hole: it always seems “on the verge” of being something–neoclassical, Romantic, impressionist, lyrical, modern–but never enough to make a definitive judgment possible. This accounts for its undoubted fascination as well as its neglect. It’s certainly worth getting to know, especially in performances as committed as these. Jean-François Antonioli and his Romanian orchestra offer some fine playing and plenty of spirit, clearly relishing the music’s quirks, and the recorded sound is good too. Busoni cultists (and he’s a real “cult” composer) won’t hesitate, but normal people should sample too. There’s lots to enjoy.
