Busoni: Il fiore del pensiero (Op. 30 no. 1)
Alisa Jordheim
Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) was born in Empoli (Tuscany) to Ferdinando Busoni, a clarinet virtuoso, and Anna Weiss, a successful pianist. Ferdinando was Italian; Anna was a native of Trieste, where Italian and German culture meet, and where the family soon resettled. Their son became one of the most fascinating figures in musical history - among the most celebrated concert pianists of any era, a visionary essayist, a composer of surprisingly modernist tendencies, and an advocate and sometime mentor of the young Arnold Schoenberg.
Ferruccio Busoni
From the age of nine, when he went to Vienna for advanced study after lessons from both his parents, Busoni lived and worked mostly in the German-speaking world. But he never forgot he was Italian, and never forgot the influence of his father. One of his most genial compositions is a late Concertino, Op. 48, for clarinet and orchestra, based on nostalgic recollections of the operatic fantasias that dominated the elder Busoni’s repertory.
Ferdinando Busoni (1834-1909)
Ferdinando was also an occasional poet, and the young Ferruccio chose one of his texts as the first item in the “Album vocale” that he published as his Op. 30 in 1884. He weaves a somewhat mysterious, scherzo-like piano part around the simple lyricism of the verses and the vocal line.
Brillava in sulla sera
Un fiorellin d’estate
Che visto in sul mattin dicea: sperate!
Fresco, olezzante egli era
Da mane a sera.
Pria di morir mi disse:
Ricordati di me!
Quel fiorellino amato
Con amoroso accento
Mi ripetea più volte il suo lamento.
Bello e gentile egli era
Di primavera.
Pria di morir mi disse:
Ricordati di me!
There shone one evening
a little summer flower,
which, seen in the morning, said: “Hope!”
It was fresh and fragrant
from morn to evening.
Before dying it said:
“Remember me!”
That dear flower,
with loving accents,
repeated to me again and again its lament.
It was fair and delicate,
like springtime.
And before dying it said:
“Remember me!”