We previously compared a CD from Mr Harden with Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan’s* lyric about Jimmy’s harmonica, which “soothed the souls of psychos and the men who had the horn”, and this new collection of piano pieces sees that hold true. It’s very late-night and calming.
The BBC reports that Sir Edward Elgar considered Ferruccio Busoni “the greatest musical mind of his time” and called Mr H’s playing of his music as “the clear current benchmark”. Do you need to know more?

Busoni was born at Empoli near Florence in 1866. He made his concert debut in 1874 at the age of eight. Wolf Harden, who champions the composer, makes light of the technical playing.

Out now on Naxos, 8.573982.

* The Pogues

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