Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz (May 29, 1860 -- May 18, 1909) was a
Spanish pianist and composer, most famous for his musical
interpretations of Spanish dance and folk song.
Albéniz was born in Camprodón in northeastern Spain. His musical education
was clearly thorough, though he never felt comfortable in the
Conservatory setting. He was trained on the piano by his sister starting
at the age of
one, and was performing publicly by the age of four. He was
denied entrance to the Paris Conservatory at age seven due to his
immaturity, but
enrolled in Spain's Royal Conservatory in Madrid shortly afterward. He
was unhappy there and often ran away from home. Though he was rumored to
have run away to South America at age twelve, he actually accompanied his
father, a customs inspector, to Cuba, and began touring the western
hemisphere.
He returned to Spain at the age of 15. After a short
stay at Leipzig (hoping to study with Franz Liszt) he moved again
to Brussels before untertaking a successful tour of Europe.
He never had the opportunity to meet Liszt, let alone study under him.
In 1883 Albéniz met fellow Spanish musician Felipe Pedrell, a
nationalist who was deeply committed to Spanish art, music, and culture.
Pedrell is credited with influencing the young Albéniz to write music
incorporating Spanish folk music and dance, though Albéniz' own talent as
a performer and composer propelled him to stardom. He took up teaching
in Madrid starting in 1885, and became one of the preeminent touring
performers of the era. In 1890, he moved to London to perform and tour,
and moved on to Paris in 1894. He devoted his time at the end of the
nineteenth century to composing operas, but returned to solo piano
compositions almost exclusively after the turn of the century.
The last decade of Albéniz life was a difficult one. His own life was cut
short by Bright's Disease. His wife, whom he deeply loved, was also ill,
and they lost one of their three children during this time. Despite this,
Albéniz continued composing, including his masterpiece -- the Suite Iberia.
He finally died from complications of his illness in Cambó-les Bains in 1909.
Despite his later troubles, he was apparently a very happy man, and enjoyed his
life, his family, and his art to the fullest.
One of Albéniz' most famous works is his Opus 47, the
Suite Española, number one. Although Albéniz' main instrument was
the piano, this suite was arranged and often performed for the
classical guitar.
The Suite Española as it is now published consists of eight pieces,
each named for a region of Spain:
Each movement is an impression of each region, based upon
a music or dance style found in each region.
One thing that should be
noted is that the original suite only consisted of four movements -- Cataluña,
Cuba, Granada, and Sevilla -- and the
eight-movement work was only published posthumously, and probably included
pieces not originally intended by Albéniz as part of Española. In
fact, the famous Asturias movement may have been misnamed by the
publisher, as it is very evocative of the culture of southern Spain
rather than the northern province of Asturia.
Despite this, all of these pieces are clearly impressionistic views of
the life and culture of Andalucia. It is hard to listen to
Granada (as I am right now) without imagining walking through
Moorish castles, with sunlight, shadows, and breezes washing
across ancient courtyards.
His other major work is the Suite Iberia, composed and published
during
the last decade of his life. It is a solo piano work, also
based upon impressions of Spain. It is composed of four books, each with
three movements highlighting one region of the country or facet
of Spanish
culture:
- Evocacion
- El puerto
- El Corpus Christi en Sevilla
- El Albaicin
- El polo
- Lavapies
Iberia is considered one of Albéniz' most technically
challenging pieces, and even he apparently had difficulty performing it.
This may have been deliberate; he was a virtuoso performer,
and it's not hard to imagine him wanting to compose music to push his talent
to the limit.
In addition to these, he is also known for his operas composed during the
1890's. His operatic works include The Magic Opal,
Henry Clifford, and Pepita Jiménez. The latter two were
collaborations with his English patron
Francis Burdett Money-Coutts, who wrote the librettos. His last
operatic work, Merlin, went unperformed during his lifetime, and he
never finished the two companion pieces he planned, Lancelot and
Guinevere.
Most of his major works are easy to find. Andres Segovia often
arranged and performed his pieces, and John Williams still does. Several
of the
Española movements can be found on Williams' recording of
Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez (CBS Masterworks MDK 45648).
The pianist Alicia De Larrocha is said to have recorded one of the best
renditions of the Suite Iberia, though I haven't heard it yet.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/albeniz.shtml
http://www.stanleyyates.com/articles/albeniz/intro.html
http://members.tripod.com/~mundoclasico/cps/ALBEN_00140.htm
http://www.lib.duke.edu/music/resources/albeniz1.html
This last link is a very detailed biography and discussion of his life and work
in context of Spanish history, culture, and nationalism.