Bach/Busoni : Two Chorals
Johann Sebastian Bach : ( 1685 -1750) German composer, harpsichordist, violinist
and organ player.Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Ferruccio Busoni (1866 -1924) Italian pianist, professor and orchestra conductor.
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
« Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland » and « Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme « are extracts from 9 choral preludes of Johann Sebastian Bach, composed for the organ and which Busoni adapted for the piano and published in 1898.
Even though Busoni was a brilliant virtuoso pianist, comparable to Liszt, his work as a composer remained little known for a long time. He was a visionary who aspired to revolutionise the principle of tonality; but he was not brave enough to apply these precepts to his compositions, and his work stayed extremely classical and strongly influenced by Bach and Liszt.
As well as choral works, he also transcribed a certain number of pieces by Bach, such as the toccata and fugue in D minor, or even the chaconne from the partita in D minor for violin.
David Zouzout




Si
Mozart, in spite of his genius, kept principally to composing music for
commissions, and Beethoven is the first composer to truly bring the public
to the music. What characterises Beethoven’s work is that it is irretrievably
linked to the man and to his courage in carrying through his convictions
as a creative artist. His background made him an heir to classicism, and
he opened the way to romanticism. A number of composers would follow the
paths of his thinking.
Chopin is undeniably the composer par excellence who revolutionised the
art of the piano with Franz Liszt during the first half of the 19th century.
It is difficult to define Prokofiev’s art in a few words, as his style consists
of multiple facets. Uncontrollable and deliberately provocative, he knew
not to become trapped in the conformist mould, and even if classical tendencies
are to be found in his music, he equally developed a language which was
very innovative, audacious, and charged with strong emotions, to which he
added the lyric and the grotesque.