The Magic Flute K. 621 K B 93, Overture to the Opera

In the preface to my arrangement of Mozart’s Fantasia for Barrel Organ, I set up a concert program of my own works that was to fill an evening on two pianos. During the public performance, the same proved to be somewhat short in its duration. This circumstance gave me a welcome occasion to pay a statute-barred tribute to the genius of Mozart by transferring his overture to “The Magic Flute” to two pianos: in which form I see the only pianistic solution to this, otherwise insurmountable, task. The present setting – a faithful transcription, and not an “arrangement” – should be at the top of the program. (Ferruccio Busoni, June 1923)