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
Modest Mussorgsky
1839 – 1881
Modest Mussorgsky is considered to be the innovator of Russian romantic music. As a child he took piano lessons, then briefly embarked on a military career, which he completed in 1858 as a guard officer in St. Petersburg.
Subsequently, he devoted himself to music largely self-taught. From the 1860s on he had to work as a concert pianist for financial reasons and also took a position as a civil servant.
Since he was denied the appropriate recognition as a composer during his lifetime, he died impoverished and suffering from alcoholism in 1881.
