MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Busoni: Fantasia Contrappuntistica and transcriptions of works by Liszt and Mozart

'Milne, who through his studies with Guido Agosti is a 'grand-pupil' of Busoni himself, tackles this repertoire with a full appreciation of the Classicism that lies behing its Romantic surface, and is especially effective at clarifying the fugal layers in the Fantasia and the Liszt' (Daily Telegraph)

'Hamish Milne, of course, is no stranger to mammoth-sized pianism. He channels his big, colorful sonority toward line rather than mass, and balances the music's thick textures as if they were varied organ registrations… Milne emphasizes clarity through and through. He takes special care to articulate short, detached phrasings differently from longer legato lines and manages to evoke a wide tonal spectrum with little help from the sustain pedal' (Audiophile Audition, USA)

Busoni was not only one of the greatest pianists of his age but also a composer and theorist of daunting intellect. His three idols were Bach, Mozart and Liszt and this disc presents two transcriptions, and-in the Fantasia contrappuntistica-a colossal re-imagining, each paying tribute to the past while reflecting Busoni's genius as both creator and re-creator.