* Please note that due to the ACT's current lockdown, this seminar will be held online

The pianism of Ferruccio Busoni: Reviews, Recordings, Aesthetics

This exegesis investigates the pianism of Italian-German pianist, composer, educator, scholar, and conductor Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924), and how it can reveal insightful and new pianistic interpretations via a study of a selection of reviews on Busoni’s playing, memoirs written by his contemporaries and students, articles on piano playing by Busoni, an analysis of three works played by Busoni and an examination of my own performances of those three pieces. Five composers featured significantly in Busoni’s huge repertoire: J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, and Liszt. His playing style and interpretation of works by three of these composers will be analysed through case studies of Chopin’s Preludes, Op. 28, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13, and Bach-Busoni’s Chaconne in D Minor. In each of these case studies, I draw links between Busoni’s performances and my execution of the same works, and how his musical aesthetics informed my overarching interpretation of the pieces. Finally, the exegesis proposes future avenues of research, such as a study of the pianism of Busoni’s contemporaries, and ways that modern pianists can explore different interpretations in their own recitals.

Aaron Chew is a fourth-year PhD candidate at the ANU School of Music studying with Emeritus Professor Larry Sitsky AO and Kotaro Nagano. His dissertation is on the Italian-German pianist, Ferruccio Busoni, and how his idiosyncratic interpretations of various recordings offer insights into performance. Aaron’s awards and scholarships include the Fellowship of Music Australia (FMUSA), First Prize Winner and joint-People's Choice Prize in the Whitworth Roach Classical Music Competition (2017), a University Medal for his Master of Music (Advanced) studies, and the Dennis Griffin National Piano Masters Scholarship. In 2016 and 2018, Aaron performed in the Canberra International Music Festival as a Young Artist. He has recorded a CD of Larry Sitsky’s Piano Sonata No.4 ‘Sufi Path’, gained an ANU Friends of the School of Music grant and a scholarship from the Golandsky Institute to perform in the 2016 Princeton University Summer Symposium. Lately, Aaron is mostly hiding in the computer room, desperately trying to
finish his PhD.

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