Transcriptions - Liszt: Fantasy on 2 Motives from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, BV B 66 (Busoni, Ferruccio)

Free public domain sheet music from IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library

See also: Fantasie über Themen aus Mozart's Figaro und Don Giovanni, S.697 (Liszt, Franz)

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Notes on Busoni's edition

The manuscript of this score, unpublished in Liszt's lifetime, resides in the Nationale Forschungs- und Gedenkstatten der klassischen deutschen Literatur in Weimar (Ms I 45). As now constituted it contains an additional 15 pages of music devoted largely to the Minuet from Don Giovanni. Busoni's edition is completely silent concerning this portion of the manuscript and does not include it. The Liszt manuscript pages are unnumbered. The Busoni scholar Larry Sitsky has speculated that these pages may have been misplaced in the Weimar library holdings at the time that Busoni examined the manuscript and were subsequently added back to the Figaro portion when the manuscript was moved. In the absence of more specific information this remains speculative. Sitsky's suggestion also does not explain Busoni's failure to mention the other alterations he made to Liszt's original. Besides the 16 bars added at the end to complete the work, he also contributed music of 5, 10, 1 and 4 bars duration at various other points in the score.

It is also possible that Busoni prepared the edition for his own performance use and needed to shorten the rather lengthy work, and that in a hurry to publish it he neglected to to take the time and make the effort to provide the publisher with the detailed notes required for a properly annotated edition. It is somewhat unusual for Busoni to prepare such an altered version without mention, since he often included notes on alterations when he first published concert editions, that of the 1914 version of Paganini Etude No.6 being an extreme example, since it includes the two Liszt versions printed above Busoni's transcription, and the Paganini original below. (The later version in the second edition of the Klavierübung omits these and is simply labelled "freie Bearbeitung.") It is also noteworthy in this regard that in his 1919 edition of Liszt's De Profundis version of Totentanz for piano and orchestra, he left the chore of providing the detailed editorial notes to his assistant Philipp Jarnach.

Ref: Sitsky, Larry (2008). Busoni and the Piano. The Works, the Writings, and the Recordings (2nd ed.) Distinquished Reprints no. 3. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press. ISBN 9781576471586 [First edition, 1986. ISBN 0313236712]

Leslie Howard edition

A more complete edition of this work including the music from Don Giovanni has been prepared by Leslie Howard: Fantasy on Themes from the Operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 'The Marriage of Figaro' and 'Don Giovanni' (Budapest: Editio Musica Budapest, 1997, cat. no. Z. 14 135; 11 pages preface, 39 pages score). He also recorded his edition for the Hyperion label (Liszt: The complete music for solo piano, Vol. 30 – Liszt at the Opera III - CDA6681/2, released November, 1994).

See also Fantasie über Themen aus Mozart's Figaro und Don Giovanni, S.697 (Liszt, Franz).