Search - Ferruccio Busoni, Wolf Harden :: Busoni: Piano Music, Vol. 2

Wolf Harden, a founder of the Trio Fontenay, is recording the solo piano works of the visionary composer and keyboard virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni. In Volume 2, Harden turns to the composer's earlier works, including the famous arrangement of Bach's Chaconne from the Violin Partita No. 2 for solo violin. It's long been a concert staple favored by Romantic pianists, but Harden acquits himself well, sculpting the statement of the theme with power and precisely articulating the work's many strands while bringing out the rich textures that saturate the piece. The other big work on the program is the Variations and Fugue on Chopin's Prelude in C minor. Here, the 19-year-old composer put the striking, but brief, Prelude through 18 permutations of dazzling virtuosity, encompassing moods ranging from leisurely lyricism to pianistic pyrotechnics, ending in a massive Fugue. Harden's excellent rendition makes you wonder why it's not programmed more often. The fillers are minor juvenilia, but Harden's commanding interpretations of the big works make this disc so appealing. --Dan Davis