The multifaceted figure of Ferruccio Busoni stands imposingly in the musical landscape at the turn of the two centuries. A frenetic activity as a man and as a musician was the characteristic that accompanied him throughout his life, and his universal genius allowed him to reach absolute artistic heights, even if often unrecognized. His virtuosity, impressive for its speed and power but never showy or an end in itself, and his avant-garde and highly original musical imagination were legendary. From his youth, he was adored by the public, often leaving critics bewildered. His compositions, especially the later ones, are among the most significant and ingenious of his time: not only his piano works but also, and above all, those for orchestra and the operatic stage had a considerable influence on an entire generation of musicians. He sincerely strove to disseminate, through performances, revisions, and critical articles, the works of his contemporary composers (such as those of Arnold Schoenberg, who succeeded him in the composition chair at the Musikakademie in Berlin). His literary education and his subtle and acute mind allowed him to prepare the librettos for his own operas and to maintain epistolary relationships with the greatest personalities of his time, in addition to publishing some fundamental writings. The most significant of these, the "Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music" from 1907, contains brilliant insights into the dodecaphonic system, microtonality, new notation systems, and even hints of electronic music. He was also an inspirer of new instruments, such as the Viennese Bösendorfer Imperial model piano used for this recording, and originally built for him. The characteristic pieces of the "Macchiette Medioevali" clearly take Schumann's "Album for the Young" as a model. They reflect the late Romantic idealization of courtly life in the Middle Ages. In "The Astrologer," certain mystical atmospheres and a polyphonic writing of clear Bachian ancestry emerge, elements so beloved by the mature Busoni. In 1910, Busoni's largest and most important piano composition saw the light: the "Fantasia contrappuntistica," which is based on J. S. Bach's "Art of Fugue." Busoni's Variations on the Chorale "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" ("All Glory to God in the Highest") precede the three fugues of Contrapunctus XIX, unfinished by Bach and slightly modified by Busoni. This is completed with an extended fugue, followed by a mystical and visionary intermezzo, then three variations in which the main themes reappear. A cadenza with large arpeggios prepares the fourth fugue, in which all themes are simultaneously combined in a massive six-part polyphony. Over an ostinato bass, the opening chorale reappears transfigured, then a stretta leads to the finale, of extraordinary grandeur and power. Busoni's intention is not to create a transcription, a form for which, to his regret, he was more famous than as a composer, but rather to present the original work rethought and mediated by his great musical personality. Intended for the concert hall, however, are the "Zehn Variationen über ein Präludium von Chopin" (Ten Variations on a Chopin Prelude). The model is clearly Brahmsian. The second version, presented here, corrects certain youthful excesses and gains in expressive depth, without neglecting the concert performance.