To describe Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica in all of its incredible detail would be the work of a graduate seminar in counterpoint. Busoni begins with a setting, divided into several variations, of the Lutheran chorale “Ehre sei Gott in der Ho?he” He goes on to develop, and eventually combine, all three of Bach’s subjects from the unfinished fugue. Then, after the connecting cadenza, he ventures beyond Bach’s original plan by writing a quadruple fugue that combines the chorale melody with the three original subjects. None of this, of course, need concern the general listener. It is enough that the Fantasia contrappuntistica is a work of exhilarating and beautiful power.

Reger was fond of the cello and wrote some of his best music for it. The Fourth Cello Sonata, Op. 116 (published in 1911), is an example of his mature cham- ber music style, and makes a better display of his undeniable powers than many of his more ambitious scores.

Founded in 1950 as a chamber music workshop for professional musicians, the Marlboro Festival has attracted outstanding concert and chamber music artists who have come to Vermont at their own expense to exchange musical ideas and to play chamber music. Away from the routine pressures of professional activity, they are free to explore the vast literature combining piano, strings, woodwinds, brass and voice, with concern only for the music itself. Weekend Festival concerts have been described by Time magazine as “the most exciting chamber music in the U.S.”