Romanian pianist Viktor Nicoara continues his survey of Ferruccio Busoni with his second album which features the formidable Fantasia contrappuntistica, the Italian composer’s completion and expansion on JS Bach’s unfinished Contrapunctus XVI from The Art of Fugue. 

Nicoara, a member of the International Mahler Orchestra, also performs small works that Busoni planned to incorporate into his unfinished opera Doktor Faust. Among them were Seven Short Pieces for the Cultivation of Polyphonic Playing, which, for all their modernity, are a “nod” to Bach’s Klavierübung.

Bach hovers behind Busoni even at his most impressionistic and in the Fantasia we also hear the spirit of Liszt in the grand gestures and rapid gear changes. Nicoara aptly describes it as being like architectural façadism with the new encased in the old. It’s a heady ride, full of nuance, and he pulls it off superbly – every bit as well as Igor Levit’s very different approach on his 2023 recording.

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