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Keyboard Thursday album review: Pianist Wolf Harden continues to impress in Busoni survey

By John Terauds on March 14, 2013

wolf

The music of great pianist-composer Ferrucio Busoni (1866-1924) continues to elude the mainstream, even with passionately eloquent advocates like Marc-André Hamelin and German-born Wolf Harden, who has just released his eighth volume of solo piano music by the once renowned Italian for the Naxos label.

Harden has the technical wherewithal as well as a rare combination of power and elegance to make the most out of the dramatic and virtuosic demands of this child prodigy.

busoniHe also treats all of the music as if it were masterful. Although the 24 Preludes, Op. 37 and Op. 33 Macchiette medioevali (Medieval Sketches) are miniatures written by a 15-year-old going on 16, they are attractive on the surface and, if one is listening carefully, one can hear the technical development of a very serious composer.

The 24 Preludes follow the Bach sequence of related “sharp” keys, starting with C Major, continuing with A minor, G Major, and so on, then regressing back through the “flats.”

The six Medieval Sketches are miniature tone poems, representing characters in an imaginary drama.

There is a lot of fine listening here for anyone who loves miniatures. They’re worth a taste.

For details and audio samples, click here.

John Terauds

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