Ferruccio Busoni im Briefwechsel mit seinem Verlag Breitkopf & Härtel (review)

As one of the most prolific letter writers of his day, Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) left behind a trove of correspondence that expresses his thoughts and motives with eloquence and elegance. The letters contain details about a wide range of topics related to his life, career, and work, including information about trips, teaching activities, colleagues, compositions, and editing projects.

Several collections of Busoni's letters have already appeared in published form, including Ferruccio Busoni: Briefe an Henri, Katharina und Egon Petri, edited by Martina Weindel (Wilhelmshaven: F. Noetzel, 1999); Ferruccio Busoni: Selected Letters, edited and translated by Antony Beaumont (London: Faber and Faber, 1987); Der Briefwechsel zwischen Ferruccio Busoni und Volkmar Andreae, 1907-1923, in the Hundertachtundsiebzigstes Neujahrsblatt der Allgemeinen Musikgesellschaft Zürich (Zurich: Kommissionsverlag Hug, 1994) and Busoni: Briefe an Seine Frau, edited by Friedrich Schnapp (Zurich: Rotapfel Verlag, 1935). Many letters, however, can still only be accessed in archives or private collections. Moreover, the content of the letters can be difficult to decipher due to Busoni's at times scrawling handwriting.

Ferruccio Busoni im Briefwechsel mit seinem Verlag Breitkopf & Härtel, a two-volume book set containing the complete surviving correspondence (more than 1,550 letters, postcards, and telegram messages) between Busoni and Breitkopf und Härtel, his main music publisher, greatly contributes to the number of his published letters. The original sources are currently located in the Breitkopf and Härtel archive in Wiesbaden and in the Musikabteilung, Busoni Nachlass der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin—Preussischer Kulturbesitz.

Some of the exchanges between Busoni and Breitkopf and Härtel are mainly factual, documenting the exchange of manuscripts or the amount of honorariums. Others are philosophical essays, offering insight about his ideas and thought processes. Particularly numerous are letters documenting the editing of the collected works of Franz Liszt and Johann Sebastian Bach (Johann Sebastian Bach, Klavierwerke, ed. Ferruccio Busoni, Egon Petri, and Bruno Mugellini, 25 vols. [Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1894-1923] and Franz Liszts Musikalische Werke [Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1907-36]). Extending from 1883, when Busoni was only 17 years old, to 1924, the year he died, the correspondence in this collection can also be read as a life chronicle. However, it should be noted that Busoni's responses to Breitkopf and Härtel are, disappointingly, missing from 1883-1894.

The volumes are user-friendly, with indexes that allow the scholar to search for specific pieces or people. The correspondence can also be read chronologically, as organized, thus offering insight into Busoni's maturation as a composer and thinker. The correspondence is subdivided by time period, which unfortunately artificially divides ongoing exchanges about specific pieces or topics. A table at the end of the second volume provides shelf locations of original source material in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. Volume 2 also contains brief commentaries summarizing Busoni's career and providing more specific details about each letter, including full citations for any pieces mentioned.

Although the editor, Eva Hanau, succeeded in deciphering the handwriting most of the time, there are several places where she used [?] marks to indicate illegible text and [. . . ?] marks to indicate incomplete text. At times, these marks make it difficult to ascertain meanings. One of the least legible letters appears to have been letter 693A, vol. 2: "[. . . ?] Figaro-M-S. [. . . ?] mir eine Abschrift fertigen lassen, die allerdings absolut[?] zuverlässig sein müsste, zugleich[?] alle zufälligen Korrekturen u. eingetragenen Bemerkungen treu wiedergäbe?" (vol. 2, p. 463).

Throughout the correspondence, the topic of Busoni's composition and editing projects is prevalent. Busoni's motivations and methods are revealed through the letters. For instance, they show that Busoni was interested in creating editions that were scholarly yet also useful for the performer. When working on the Liszt edition, he stated: "Unsere Absicht war, sobald eine kritische Unterlage geschaffen wäre, an die Vorbereitung einer praktischen...