Ravinia 2025 Issue 2

rising and falling in gentle waves of sound. The second theme combines rapid imitation with ac- cented chords. A presto coda propels this sonata to an exhilarating conclusion. FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1866–1924) Berceuse from Elegies , BV 249 With the Elegies for solo piano, the Italian pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni transformed from a late-Romantic firebrand into a modernist visionary. Franz Liszt underwent a similar pro- gression one generation earlier in his late piano compositions Unstern! Sinistre, disastro (1881), Nuages gris (1881), and Bagatelle sans tonalité (1885), which ventured beyond the bounds of conventional tonality. Busoni conveyed his new musical objectives in a volume entitled Entwurf einer neuen Ästhetik (Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music), completed in 1907 and first published in an English translation by Theodore Baker in 1911. The opening pages address a variety of top- ics (music’s less evolved state relative to the other arts, “absolute music,” form, notation, expres- sion, and musicality) before confronting the core of his “new aesthetic”—tonality. Busoni criticized the prevailing tonal system as “nothing more than a set of ‘signs’; an ingenious device to grasp somewhat of that eternal harmo- ny; a meagre pocket-edition of that encyclopedic work; artificial light instead of the sun.” Twelve pitches within the octave, arranged into a small number of seven-note series, offered too few op- tions. Busoni imagined an almost infinite num- ber of divisions of the octave. He explored all possible configurations of the scale “by raising and lowering the intervals” and arrived upon 113 distinct scales, some containing tripartite tones (a whole tone divided into thirds) that produced as many as 36 pitches within an octave. The collection of solo-piano Elegies embodied this new aesthetic. As Busoni proudly asserted in The Essence of Music and Other Papers : “My entire personal vision I put down at last and for the first time in the Elegies .” Composed in Vi- enna in 1907, the Elegies originally comprised Ferruccio Busoni six piano pieces, some incorporating materi- al from earlier compositions. Two years later, Busoni added a seventh work—the ethereal, dreamlike Berceuse (Lullaby)—possibly as a memorial to his recently deceased father, the clarinetist Ferdinando Busoni, who died on May 12, 1909. The published score bore a dedi- cation to Dutch pianist Johan Wijsman. A few months later, Busoni endured another tragedy: the death of his mother, the pianist Anna Weiss-Busoni, on October 3, 1909. “I have never overcome the grief which I felt at the loss of my mother,” he later confessed in a letter to Arrigo Serato on February 2, 1920. “I believe it will remain the most profound event in my life.” Two literary works that Busoni was reading at the time offered some consolation: Thomas de Quincey’s collection of essays in prose poetry, Suspiria de profundis (Sighs from the Depths, 1845), and Adam Oehlenschlager’s play Aladdin, eller Den forunderlige Lampe (Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp, 1805). Mu- sic, unsurprisingly, provided the ultimate com- fort. Busoni expanded his piano lullaby into an exquisite orchestral essay, Berceuse élégiaque , op. 42, which he described as “A Man’s Lullaby at His Mother’s Coffin.” ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856) Etudes symphoniques (Etüden in Form von Variationen) in C-sharp minor, op. 13 While a law student at Leipzig University, Schumann received a leave-of-absence in 1829– 30 for a year’s study at Heidelberg University. His mother desperately hoped a different setting would distract Robert from music and instill a serious interest in his legal studies. In fact, the sabbatical achieved just the opposite. Heidel- berg law professor Justus Thibaut had recently published a tract on music aesthetics— Über die Reinheit der Tonkunst (Regarding the Purity of Music)—that fascinated the impressionable young man. Schumann also traveled to nearby Frankfurt for an Easter Sunday concert by vio- lin virtuoso Nicolò Paganini. The Italian’s phe- nomenal technique excited Schumann, but he expressed “doubts about the ideal in art and his lack of grand, noble, priestly artistic repose.” Schumann returned to Leipzig with a strength- ened resolve to pursue a musical career. His piano teacher, Friedrick Wieck, reassured his mother: “I give my pledge to make your son Robert, with his talent and his fantasy, into one of the greatest living pianists within three years.” Frau Schumann agreed to a six-month trial. Another piano student, Ernestine von Fricken, immediately attracted Schumann’s affection. The two fell deeply in love and were secretly betrothed. Alarmed by the seriousness of his daughter’s affair, Baron Ignaz Ferdinand von Fricken hastened to Leipzig. The possible dis- closure of his daughter’s illegitimacy may have worried him more. Baron von Fricken, an amateur flutist and occa- sional composer, performed an original set of variations for Schumann, who wrote: “I am hap- py to have your composition as a point of con- tact. Whether it will spin into a longer thread, holding us together at a distance, I don’t know, but that is my wish.” That “longer thread”—the Etudes symphoniques (Etüden in Form von Vari- ationen) in C-sharp minor, op. 13—was spun between 1834 and 1837. Employing the baron’s flute theme, Schumann finally found the oppor- tunity to compose a virtuosic set of variations and studies in the tradition of Paganini. The original title, Etüden im Orchestercharakter für Pianoforte von Florestan und Eusebius (1837), invoked Schumann’s schizophrenic Romantic alter-egos—Florestan and Eusebius—familiar through his articles in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik . Their orchestral character reflected the grand design of this collection, which contained both “etudes” and “variations.” The finale in- terjected a patriotic march theme, “Du stolzes England, freue dich” (Proud England, Rejoice), from Heinrich Marschner’s opera Der Templer und die Jüdin (The Knight and the Jewess). This “English” theme provided an obvious tribute to Schumann’s dedicatee, the British composer William Sterndale Bennett. Schumann continued to alter the title, steadily abandoning abstract designations in favor of the more objective, non-programmatic Etüden in Form von Variationen , which appeared in the second printed edition (1852). In the end, Rob- ert jilted Ernestine in 1835, falling in love with and, after much legal wrangling, marrying Clara Wieck, the talented daughter of his teacher. Iron- ically, Clara almost single-handedly popularized the Etudes symphoniques , a work founded on a theme by her rival’s father. After the composer’s death, five more variations were discovered and subsequently published in the Breitkopf & Här- tel edition of his piano music. Johannes Brahms strongly urged this publication, although the composer’s widow opposed the idea. –Program notes © 2025 Todd E. Sullivan Robert Schumann by T. Bauer, based on a painting by Carl Jäger RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JUNE 16 – JUNE 29, 2025 64