Busoni, Ferruccio Benvenuto 1866-1924
Italian pianist and composer

Born in Empoli, Tuscany, he was an infant prodigy. In 1889 he became Professor of Pianoforte at Helsinki, and he subsequently taught and played the piano in Moscow, Boston, Berlin, Weimar and Zurich. The influence of Franz Liszt is apparent in his piano concerto. Of his four operas Doktor Faust, completed posthumously by a pupil in 1925, is his most impressive work. He was a noted editor of the keyboard music of J S Bach and Liszt, and his pupils included Percy Grainger, Paul Hindemith and Kurt Weill. He wrote Entwurf einer neuen Asthetik der Tonkunst (1906, Eng trans Outline of a New Aesthetic of Music).

Bibliography: E J Dent, Ferruccio Busoni: A Biography (1933)