Music and Letters

Beaumont, Antony.
Ferruccio Busoni: 'A Musical Ishmael' (review)
Music and Letters - Volume 87, Number 2, May 2006, pp. 341-342

Oxford University Press

Antony Beaumont - Ferruccio Busoni: 'A Musical Ishmael' (review) - Music and Letters 87:2 Music and Letters 76.2 (2006) 341-342 Ferruccio Busoni: 'A Musical Ishmael'. By Della Couling. pp. xvi + 391. (Scarecrow, Lanham, Md., 2005, £27. ISBN 0-8108-5142-3.) Oxford University Press published Edward J. Dent's authoritative Ferruccio Busoni: A Biography in 1933 (repr. London, 1974 and New York, 1982). Further accounts of Busoni's life and works followed at irregular intervals over the next half-century, ranging from the monographs of Adolfo Santelli (1939), Guido Guerrini (1944), Remo Giazotto (1947), and Emil Debusmann (1949) to more comprehensive studies by Grigori Kogan (1964), Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt (1967), and Sergio Sablich (1982). Dent wrote his book with the help of the composer's widow, Gerda, but also under her eagle eye. Accordingly, certain areas of Busoni's vita were passed over and others judiciously tidied up. In the hope of dispelling rumours that Busoni had died of cirrhosis of the liver, due to excessive alcohol consumption, Dent included an appendix on 'Busoni's last illness' (pp. 315-16), which, if anything, exacerbated rather than clarified the situation. For all these flaws, the book still rates as a classic. Dent's knowledge of musical history was profound and comprehensive, he...