Ferruccio Busoni
1866 - 1924
Ferruccio Busoni was a German composer and pianist born in Italy. At the age of 7 he made his first public appearance and at 12 he conducted his own Stabat Mater.
He taught in Helsinki, Moscow and Boston before settling permanently in Berlin in 1894. He became famous as a virtuoso pianist and gave world premieres of works by important composers.
His most famous work during his lifetime, the opera Die Brautwahl (1910), was followed by the operas Arlecchino (1916) and Turandot (1917), but the unfinished and posthumously staged Doctor Faust is considered his masterpiece.
Of his orchestral works, his Piano Concerto (1904) is the most frequently performed. His numerous piano pieces include the Fantasia contrappuntistica (1910), six sonatinas (1910-20) and arrangements of organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Erik Satie
1866 - 1925
Carl Maria von Weber
1786 – 1826
The composer Carl Maria von Weber was born on November 18 or 19, 1786 in Eutin, Holstein. As the son of the musician Franz Anton von Weber, he received his first music lessons at an early age, from 1797 with Michael Haydn in Salzburg and from 1801 with Abbé Vogler in Vienna.
At the age of 18 he became opera conductor in Wroclaw, then, from 1813 to 1816, in Prague. In 1817 he took the position of music director at the newly founded Deutsche Oper in Dresden.
In his compositional work, Weber is considered the creator of German romantic opera. His work 'Der Freischütz', premiered in Berlin in 1821, is the epitome of German opera. In addition to operas, Weber composed some stage music, numerous concerts and orchestral works. He died in London on June 5, 1826.