Customer Reviews

Busoni the Visionary: Red Indian Diary, Book 1 / Seven Elegies / Chaconne from Bach's Partita in D Minor

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A wonderfull recording. Ms. Slotchiver brings Busoni's music to life with color, phrasing, and emotional maturity. The rare Indian Diary is spellbinding. The Seven Elegies evoke all the passion, struggle, turbulance, mystery and hope Busoni wrote into them. From the first note to the ending echo it is as if one stepped onto a musical rollercoaster of sound. What a beautifull and emotionaly moving rendition. Finally, Ms. Slotchiver's performance of Busoni's transcription of Bach's Chaconne is magnificent; a true virtuoso piece played by a true virtuoso. Moreover, added to all this are the most scholarly, yet readable linear notes I have ever come across. Busoni and his music come alive here. I for one, eagerly look forward to hearing more from this artist.

I thought that this classical music was phenomenal. I think that people all over the world that like classical music should listen to this cd. Come on I am only 11 and I like this now so that is something new.

I would not have known about this album if not for the review in the NY TIMES. Frankly, I had hardly ever hear of this composer. I came to Amazon to listen to the sound clips and although they are good they do not do it justice. I bought this album and it is a wonderful album. You can hear the power from the performer and the music is beautiful and interesting. This album is new and refreshing.

Whether it is Haydn, Liszt, or Guastavino, I have always regarded Jeni Slotchiver as a unique individual who plays with a full understanding of what the composer was trying to say. Ms. Slotchiver's Busoni has given me a new and refreshing insight to what the composer was about. I truly believe that, once Ms. Slotchiver completes the daunting task of recording all of Busoni's works, she will champion his works by allowing her interpretations to reach out to a wider audience and thus resurrect this underated composer. In making an analogy, the first question is the toughest on an examination. Well, she has passed this "first question" with flying colors!

Why is Busoni not a household name? First attracted by the NYT review, I found the music and the playing glorious. Slotchiver plays with great elegance and passion but does not overly romantify. She lets the simple beauty of the music speak for itself. No one could be unaffected by this cd or fail to seek out more Busoni compositions, wondering why his name is not as frequently heard as other contemporaries.

"Busoni's piano music still awaits the attention it truly deserves...Pianist Jeni Slotchiver loves this music passionately, as both her performances and her intelligent booklet notes make very clear. [Ms. Slotchiver has an...] extraordinary involvement with, and ability to project, the music's haunting ambivalence. She's at her best probing Busoni's quieter, introspective moments (and that's most of the time), where her wide range of keyboard color and sense of mystery are quite simply mesmerizing. For example...'All' Italai! In modo napolitano', surges up from the keyboard like some black primordial flood, and when the music finally breaks into a folksy Neapolitan tarantella, the sense of releif is positively physical... Performed this way, Busoni's music really gets under your skin." -DAVID HURWITZ CLASSICS TODAY Nov. 1999

CRITIC's CHOICE/ Classical CD"S Appropriate for Millenial Reflection" "A recent Centaur recording, appropriately called 'Busoni The Visionary' (CRC2438), presents a fascinating program of piano works impressively played by the pianist Jeni Slotchiver...Filled with incandescent piano writing and music of stunning harmonic invention...A vivid performance. - ANTHONY TOMMASINI The New York Times December, 30 1999