Ru
EnK. Zhabinsky
Ferruccio Busoni and Moscow Conservatory: historical facts in the light of musical fiction and documentary materials
The article examines the short-lived collaboration of the renowned Italian pianist, composer, and pedagogue with the Moscow Conservatory: during the 1890/1891 academic year, 24-year-old Professor F. Busoni taught in the piano department there. Afterward, contrary to the expectations of enthusiastic students and the Conservatory’s director, V. Safonov, he decided not to renew his contract, departing for the United States (Boston, further New York), and after return – for Germany. This unexpected “change of fortune” subsequently gave rise to a variety of assumptions and conjectures, initially presented in nonmusical fiction (A. Shepelevsky’s tale “In the Musical Seminary”), then in scholarly literature (G. Kogan's monograph and later musicological publications on F. Busoni). The article attempts a documented study of the events of that time, which, on the one hand, takes into account the memoirs of Russian musicians closely associated with the Moscow Conservatory at the turn of the 20th century (A. Goldenveiser, E. Gnesina, S. Vasilenko, etc.), and on the other hand, relies on the actual “results” of F. Busoni’s teaching activity in Moscow, recorded in the pages of an official document – the Report of the Moscow Branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society for 1890/1891 (including the Conservatory, financed by the IRMS and “subordinated” to it). A comparison of the aforementioned testimonies and statistical facts allows us to conclude that the young teacher was insufficiently prepared for work in Russia at that time (a superficial perception of the predominant contingent of students, significant language problems, a very rough understanding of financial conditions, etc.). This necessitates a more objective and comprehensive coverage of the “Moscow period” in modern biographies of F. Busoni.
Key words
F. Busoni, pedagogical activities, Moscow Conservatory, V. Safonov, Moscow Branch of Imperial Russian Music Society.
For citation
Zhabinsky K. Ferruccio Busoni and Moscow Conservatory: historical facts in the light of musical fiction and documentary materials. In: South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2026. No. 3. Pp. 38–45.
