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Friday, February 9, 2007

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BUSONI; THE CONTRADICTIONS PERSIST

Published: September 1, 1985

The Two Studies for ''Doktor Faust'' reveal a much surer hand: their freely chromatic lines weave dissonant counterpoint above ambiguous harmonies. The post-Romantic Straussian overtones have been distilled; though the cliches remain, they are pruned and thinned, so that they fit more comfortably with the now-prominent linear neo-Classicism. The Cincinnati Symphony delivers first-rate playing: powerfully expressive, accurate in ensemble, seemingly at home in Busoni's oddly personal esthetic.

In the very same year as the Two Studies, Busoni composed his Concertino for Clarinet and Small Orchestra, Op. 48, recorded on a new Nonesuch release (D-79077). It is hard to believe that the Concertino was written by the composer of ''Faust.'' Here we have an aggressively literal appropriation of Mozartean Classicism, replete with a simplified harmonic vocabulary, ornamentation and concise forms. The sparse textures and drily objective emotional content are redolent of Stravinsky, even if the Mozartean content is not. Here Busoni's post-Romantic inclinations have almost completely disappeared.

The Nonesuch release is especially rewarding because it reminds us of the esthetic crosscurrents in turn-of-the-century Germany. On the same disk, Franz Schreker's Chamber Symphony (1916) is filled with the perfumed decadence of Schonberg's ''Verklarte Nacht'': its Wagnerian contrapuntal chromaticism has been thinned until its intertwining lines stand out clearly, and its sensual orchestration is luminous and radiant. Paul Hindemith's ''Kammermusik No. 1'' (1921) is typical of the neo-Classicism that became so fashionable in the 1920's: savage, motoric, filled with mechanistic ostinatos, linear dissonance and hints of jazz.

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz conveys the disparate idioms of these three composers in convincing fashion, though David Shifrin's clarinet tone in the Busoni is breathy and forced. What is most striking, however, is how much more successful Schreker and Hindemith are than Busoni: Schreker's nostalgic post-Romanticism is sincere if faded, and Hindemith embraces Busoni's ''new Classicism'' with a clarity and confidence the older composer was unable to muster. Perhaps posterity's judgment has been correct: Busoni's radical teachings and pianistic legacy remain more riveting, and more influential, than his compositional output.