ALBENIZ, Isaac
b Camprodon, Gerona, Spain, 29 May 1860
d Cambo-les-Bains, France, 18 May 1909, aged forty-eight
He appeared as a pianist in Barcelona at the age of four. At seven
he passed the entrance examination for piano at the Paris Conservatory,
but was refused admission because of unruly behaviour. He went to
the Madrid Conservatory, but ran away, becoming a vagabond, and making
a living by playing. By the age of fifteen he had given concerts around
the world. He studied with Liszt, d'Indy and Dukas, but could never
accept musical discipline; Fauré, with whom he associated when
he went to live in Paris in 1893, most helped his development. An
English banker paid him well to turn his verse-dramas into operas;
but fundamentally he was a composer for piano, though some of his
works are extremely difficult to play.
1886 (26)
Recuerdos de Viaje, for piano
Torre Bermeja, for piano
1887 (27)
Piano Concerto
Rhapsodia Española, for orchestra
1889 (29)
Suite Española, for piano
1893 (33)
The Magic Opal, opera
1894 (34)
San Antonio de la Florida, opera
1895 (35)
Enrico Clifford, opera
1896 (36)
Pepita Jimenez, opera
Cantos de España, for piano
Espana, for piano
1899 (39)
p Catalonia, orchestral rhapsody
1906 (46)
Merlin, opera
1906-9
Iberia. piano cycle
1908 (48)
Navarra, for piano
He also left a great mass of piano music, much of it extremely difficult
to play.