

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


Anton Bruckner
1824 – 1896

Austrian composer. Son of a country schoolmaster who died in Anton's youth, he was accepted into a monastery as a choir boy and learned to play the organ there.
In 1855 he was gifted organist at Linz Cathedral; Throughout his career as a composer, his orchestrations have been compared to organ sounds.
In 1865 he heard Tristan and Isolde in Munich and then worshiped Richard Wagner, although his own works remained committed to Ludwig van Beethoven.
In 1868 he was appointed professor at the Vienna Conservatory and settled in Vienna for the rest of his life.
He was 60 years old before he rose to fame with his Symphony No. 7 in E major (1884). He was socially awkward and eccentric, and he remained a devout Christian until his death.
His reputation is based on his nine symphonies (1866-96), his three masses and his Te Deum (1884).