Volume 2 of Naxos’ Busoni piano music edition begins with the composer’s famous transcription of Bach’s D minor solo violin Chaconne. Wolf Harden’s slow, spacious tread and massive sonority impart an organ-like majesty to Busoni’s gothic textures, although his fast unison scales don’t quite scintillate in the manner of Kissin or Michelangeli. Slight but noticeably uneven double notes and rotary passages prevent the final sections of the Op. 17 Etude en forme de variations from truly soaring. However, Harden’s technique easily grasps the strange “Siegfried’s Rhine Journey” allusions and knotty register jumps in the variations based on Mozart’s “Kommt ein Vogel geflogen”. The C major and “Inno” Variations date from Busoni’s childhood and have no intrinsic musical interest other than their authorship.
Lastly, we encounter the ambitious, gnarly Chopin variations. Reviewing Harden’s traversal of Busoni’s Fantasia Contrappuntistica on Volume 1, I spoke of the pianist not possesing the visionary drive and narrative sweep others had brought to that work. The same criticism applies here, although Harden’s clean fingerwork and discreet pedaling convincingly scale Busoni’s upholstered ambition down to softer-grained proportions. I still prefer John Ogdon’s firmer, more dynamic fugue and superior sense of rhetorical abandon elsewhere. Harden’s best work, however, is solidly first class and well worth hearing.
