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
Frederic Chopin
1810 - 1849
Frederic Chopin was a Polish-French composer. Born in Poland to middle-class French parents, he published his first composition at the age of seven and began performing in aristocratic salons at the age of eight.
He moved to Paris in 1831, and his first Paris concert the next year put him in the realm of fame. Known as a piano teacher, he spent his time in the highest society.
He apparently contracted tuberculosis in the 1830s. In 1837 he began a 10-year association with the writer George Sand; she left him in 1847 and a rapid decline resulted in his death two years later.
Chopin is not only Poland's greatest composer, but perhaps the most important composer in the history of the piano; he made exhaustive use of the instrument's abilities for charm, tension, variety and sonic beauty.