He might not yet have a sizeable discography but Jiayan Sun is a pianist to reckon with, a fact underlined by this collection focusing on music by Busoni and those who inspired him. The programme opens with an objective but not impersonal take on Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, one that emphasises the Fantasia’s poised severity and the Fugue’s stealthy evolution towards a decisive close. There have been few more cohesive accounts of the Toccata: Sun brings dextrous poise to its Preludio, and if the central Fantasia feels a shade circumspect, the Ciaconna finds the right balance between impulsiveness and inevitability. After this, the Berceuse appended to the Elegies is all the more affecting for its lucid elegance.

If there is a slight disappointment, it is that the Fantasia nach Johann Sebastian Bach could convey even more emotional raptness through its interplay of arranged and original material, though Sun’s overall perspective of an indivisible yet irresolvable whole is convincing. There are no such quibbles regarding the first Indianisches Tagebuch, whose four pieces exude that intertwined playfulness and soulfulness to which Busoni responded with abundant empathy in Amerindian culture, most notably the extended Andante.

In the Sixth Sonatina, Sun audibly enjoys Busoni’s rendering of Bizet’s evergreens such that their recalcitrance and fatefulness are vividly juxtaposed. Inclusion of Liszt’s Figaro Fantasy (Busoni having omitted the material derived from Don Giovanni that Leslie Howard reincorporates in his edition) points up the aesthetic proximity between these pieces, again drawing from Sun a reading of verve and insouciance. The first Variations-Studie nach Mozart concludes this recital to suitably deft and ingratiating effect.

The clarity and suppleness Sun conjures from his Steinway are caught in excellent sound, and Erinn E Knyt’s notes are perceptive. Busoni’s admirers will already have these pieces in authoritative recordings, to which this album provides a welcome addition.

This review originally appeared in the SPRING 2025 issue of International Piano