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
Georges Bizet
1838 - 1875
The composer Georges Bizet - real name Alexandre César Léopold - studied piano, theory and composition at the Paris Conservatory and won the Rome Prize at the age of 19.
After returning from Rome he worked as a private music teacher, répétiteur and stage composer. As such, he was soon able to premier his first operas - albeit only with moderate success: 'Les pêcheurs de perles' in 1863, 'La jolie fille de Perth' in 1867 and 'Djamileh' in 1872.
Bizet's major work, the opera 'Carmen', fell through with Parisian critics when it premiered in March 1875.
It was not until the Vienna performance in October that it met with great success. Bizet, however, could no longer experience this: he died of a chronic throat and heart disease on June 3, 1875 in Bougival near Paris.
