Isaac Albéniz

For the film by Luis César Amadori about the musician, see Albéniz (film).

Isaac Albéniz
File:Isaac Albéniz, 1901.jpg Photograph from 1901.
Born	Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (1860-05-29)May 29, 1860 Camprodon, Spain
Died	May 18, 1909(1909-05-18) (aged 48) Cambo-les-Bains, France
Occupations	Composer, pianist
Spouse(s)	Rosina Jordana Lagarriga (1883–1909)
Children	Alfonso (1886–1941) Laura (1890–1944) Enriqueta

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (Camprodon, Girona, May 29, 1860 – Cambo-les-Bains, May 18, 1909) was a celebrated Spanish composer and pianist, a disciple of Felipe Pedrell. Thanks to the help of Guillermo Morphy, Count of Morphy, a composer and patron of the arts, he obtained a stipend to train at the Brussels Conservatory in 1876, and he finished his studies in 1879.

Being a virtuoso piano composer, Isaac Albéniz also composed music for other instruments. He devoted more than a decade of his nearly forty-nine years of life to writing pieces for the theater (such as, for example, his most successful operatic work, Pepita Jiménez), and he also devoted himself to performing concerts, or to the recording of his opera Merlin. During his career he wrote more than two dozen songs, as well as several orchestral and chamber pieces.

The personal archive of Isaac Albéniz is preserved in the Library of Catalonia and in the Music Museum of Barcelona, which holds the donation offered by the composer's granddaughter (it includes biographical documentation, original manuscript copies and personal objects).

There is an "Albéniz Foundation", with offices in Madrid and Santander, currently presided over by Paloma O'Shea.

Life and work

Isaac Albéniz was born in Camprodon, Girona, on May 29, 1860, the son of Ángel Lucio Albéniz y Gauna (Vitoria, March 2, 1817–?) and his first wife María de los Dolores Pascual. He had three sisters: Blanca Albéniz y Pascual; Clementina Albéniz y Pascual (Madrid, 1853 – Madrid, 1946), married to Víctor Ruiz y Rojo and mother of Víctor Ruiz Albéniz and Sara Ruiz Albéniz; and Enriqueta Albéniz y Pascual. His father married a second time in 1901, to María Romero y Cebrián.

He began his life as a prodigy—he debuted as a concert pianist, with great success, at the age of four—and after many risky tours that took him as far from home as the Americas (journeys that constantly interrupted his classes at the Conservatory of Madrid), he concentrated on a serious course of studies in Belgium. With a scholarship he received from King Alfonso XII of Spain, he entered the Conservatory of Brussels in 1876, graduating in 1879 with a first prize in piano, which was awarded to him unanimously. Albéniz returned to Spain to establish himself as an expert virtuoso; in addition, he began to compose and to conduct. He soon started as director of a traveling zarzuela company and wrote three zarzuelas—which are not preserved today. In 1883 he settled in Barcelona, where on June 23 he married Rosa Jordana y Lagarriga in the church of the Virgen de la Merced, with whom he had one son and two daughters, and where he studied composition with Felipe Pedrell. More and more, Albéniz incorporated his own compositions into his recitals. In 1885 he moved to Madrid, where he again received the help of his protector the Count of Morphy, frequently attending the musical soirées organized at his private residence. He was also part of the faculty of the Instituto Filarmónico, a free teaching center presided over by the Count of Morphy. His works were published by the leading music publishers of that time: Benito Zozaya and Antonio Romero.

On January 1, 1886, his son Alfonso Albéniz Jordana was born; he married Rosalie de Sweert (Antwerp, September 3, 1901–?). His daughter Laura Albéniz Jordana was born in 1890; she was an important painter and illustrator and died in 1944. His daughter Enriqueta Albéniz Jordana married Vincent Alzamora.

Antonio Guerra y Alarcón, in his monograph «Isaac Albéniz: Notas crítico-biográficas de tan eminente pianista»[1] (1886), reveals that alongside dozens of works for piano and the three zarzuelas, Albéniz composed several songs: four romances for mezzo-soprano in French, three romances in Catalan and an Álbum Bécquer. No traces of the Romances exist, but the Álbum Bécquer most likely referred to the Rimas of Bécquer, later published by Zozaya in 1888 (this biography of Albéniz has turned out to be the source of serious errors and mistakes about the composer's life, since he himself took care to "decorate" his life enough for it to be admired by others). Among these errors it is worth noting that Albéniz never met (much less studied) with Franz Liszt, that he was never a stowaway on ships sailing to America, and that he never toured Europe traveling as a wandering bohemian: both journeys were carefully planned by his father, Ángel Albéniz.) Also in the same year Romero published the Seis Baladas. In 1889 Romero announced the publication of another group of songs, Seis melodías with text by Alfred de Musset. However, except for Albéniz's Chanson de Barberine, no other song with lyrics by Musset has survived to our day.

Albéniz's reputation as a pianist and composer continued to grow. In the spring of 1889 he traveled to Paris, where he appeared at the Concerts Colonne in a session that included his Piano Concerto, Op. 78. From Paris he went on to England, where his performances brought him instant success. In 1890 he got in touch with the impresario Henry Lowenfeld, who engaged Albéniz's services as a performer and composer. As a result, Albéniz moved with his family (his wife Rosina and his three children) to London and through Lowenfeld he finally entered the world of musical theater. Working at the Lyric Theatre and later at the Prince of Wales Theatre, he provided extra numbers as were needed for his adaptations of musical comedies. At Lowenfeld's request, Albéniz composed The Magic Opal. This lyric comedy in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan premiered at the Lyric on January 19, 1893 (it was later translated into Castilian by Eusebio Sierra and presented in Madrid in 1895 as La Sortija; that same year, his zarzuela San Antonio de la Florida with a libretto by Sierra was also performed in Madrid).

His theatrical contacts in London attracted the attention of the amateur poet and playwright and heir to a banking fortune of the celebrated firm Coutts and Co, Francis Burdett Money-Coutts, who had bought shares and in July 1894 acquired the contract Albéniz had with Lowenfeld. Coutts, whose financial support allowed Albéniz to live comfortably for the rest of his life, was interested in writing librettos. His collaboration with the composer produced Henry Clifford (premiered at the Liceu theater in Barcelona in 1895), Pepita Jiménez (Teatro Liceo, 1896; Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague, 1897; La Monnaie in Brussels, 1905), and Merlin (composed between 1898 and 1902 but not produced in Albéniz's lifetime), the first opera of a proposed trilogy titled King Arthur (Lancelot remained incomplete in 1903, and as for Genevre, it was never attempted). Consequently, for approximately a decade, Albéniz devoted all his talent and energy to the creation and production of music for the stage. During this time he moved back and forth between London and Paris.

Isaac Albéniz ex libris made by Ismael Smith ca. 1921.

File:Isaac Albeniz - Tango Op.165 Nº2 - David Hernando Vitores - Kayoko Morimoto (Wasei Duo).ogg File:Isaac Albeniz - Asturias - David Hernando Vitores.ogg In the French capital he got in touch with Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson, Charles Bordes, and later with Paul Dukas and Gabriel Fauré, forming close ties with the French musical community. From 1898 to 1900 he taught advanced piano at the Schola Cantorum, but because of his poor health, in 1900 he returned to the warm Spanish climate. He began arduous work together with Enrique Morera on the promotion of Catalan lyric works. When, however, his efforts failed to get his own theatrical works produced, he returned to Paris, where his music was accepted, praised and performed. Albéniz's residence in Paris began to be a refuge for Spanish artists (among them Joaquín Turina and Manuel de Falla); there they found support and encouragement for their own efforts. Albéniz's preoccupation with longer musical forms produced a change in his compositional style from the basically light, attractive pieces of his early career toward a more complex art. And although he did not stop performing, his appearances diminished as he began to let himself be absorbed by the composition and production of his operatic works. From this period come the songs Il en est de l'amour and Deux morceaux de prose de Pierre Loti (Crépuscule and Tristesse), as well as those groups of poems by Coutts: To Nellie (a set of six songs); Art thou gone for ever, Elaine; Six Songs (of which only Will you be mine? and Separated survive); and Two Songs (The Gifts of the Gods and The Caterpillar). From this period there also exists an opening sample of a song setting to music the text of Jean de La Fontaine's fable "Conseil tenu par les rats" (Council held by the rats), the concluding fragment of a Coutts song, Laugh at loving, and references to other Coutts songs for which the music has not been found.

As Coutts began to tire of writing librettos, Albéniz gradually returned to the piano and to his native landscape of inspiration, La Vega (1896–98) foreshadowing his later style, which flourished with his masterpiece Iberia (1905–1908). The compositional texture and the language that define Iberia are characteristic of Quatre mélodies (from the poems of Coutts), Albéniz's last vocal work and last completed pieces. Because of nephritis, Albéniz died in Cambo-les-Bains, in the French Pyrenees, on May 18, 1909.

A curious fact about Isaac Albéniz is that a few days before his death, his great friend and fellow countryman Enrique Granados came to visit him. Albéniz asked him to play something for him on the piano and Granados performed his work La maja y el Ruiseñor (an unpublished work at the time), when suddenly he played the barcarolle "Mallorca", a work composed by Albéniz on a trip the two of them made to the Balearic Islands. Albéniz would die days later, before the French government could present him with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor at the request of other prominent pianists such as Fauré, Debussy and Granados himself.

Legacy

Upon Albéniz's death, Rosina asked his great friend Enrique Granados to finish her late husband's last work, "Azulejos". Granados finished it impeccably, in such a way that it is very difficult to distinguish where Albéniz ends and where Granados begins. Also worth highlighting are two works for piano composed prior to the Iberia Suite, namely the Suite española No. 1 and the Suite española No. 2. Both works, given their importance, deserve mention.

The Spanish flag carrier airline, Iberia, named one of its Airbus A340 aircraft after him.

There is an "Albéniz Foundation", a private non-profit organization that promotes classical music in Spain through its programs: the Queen Sofía School of Music, the Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition, the Albéniz Archive and Documentation Center, the International Institute of Chamber Music of Madrid, and the Santander Music and Academy Meeting. The Foundation was founded in 1972 by Paloma O'Shea, with headquarters in Madrid and a permanent office in Santander.

Façade of the Albéniz Foundation

The personal archive of Isaac Albéniz is preserved in the Library of Catalonia and in the Music Museum of Barcelona, which holds the donation offered by the composer's granddaughter (it includes biographical documentation, original manuscript copies and personal objects).

Isaac Albéniz Collection

Donated by the granddaughter of Isaac Albéniz, it is quantitatively the second most important collection of the Music Museum of Barcelona. It was donated in two installments (in 1976 and in 1984), and includes his correspondence, above all letters with Malats, Granados and his wife, Rosa Jordana. It contains a very varied compilation of biographical documentation in which one can find, among other things, the baptismal record, the diaries Viaje a Hungría, personal diaries and the musician's will. Accompanying this documentation are some personal objects and a collection of photographs dedicated to the composer and to his daughter Laura, such as those of Moriz Rosenthal, Felip Pedrell, Ignacio Zuloaga, Enrique Granados and Rubinstein, and the images of Albéniz's funeral procession in Barcelona.

It also holds an extensive and interesting personal library: 85 items corresponding to editions of texts and theoretical treatises, biographies and musical studies. Among them are Le Théatre de R. Wagner, by Kufferath; Tractat pràctic d'harmonia, by Enric Morera; Jornadas de Arte, by Felip Pedrell; and Pepita Jiménez, by Juan Valera.

It also contains a newspaper archive that bears witness to his artistic life, gathered in ten thematic-chronological volumes of notes, news items and reviews about Albéniz as a young performer, composer in Europe, commentator and critic, about his death, and about revivals of his works.

The collection is characterized by a score library with notable content, such as the autograph manuscript 3.^er cuaderno Lavapiés Iberia (donated by Malats), King Arthur-Merlin (engraver's proofs), and the printed scores Marcha militar (1868), San Antonio de la Florida, King Arhur, Pepita Jiménez, To Nellie, the Complete Works of Chopin, Cançons populars by Francesc Alió, and 50 Harpsichord Lessons by Scarlatti.

See also

• List of works by Isaac Albéniz
• Compositions by Isaac Albéniz
• Felipe Pedrell
• Enrique Granados
• Joaquín Turina
• Manuel de Falla
• Musical nationalism
• Anselmo Barba

Bibliography

• Alarcón Hernández, Joana; et al. Isaac Albéniz, artistes i mecenes. Barcelona: Museu Diocesà de Barcelona, 2009. ISBN 9788493689551
• Albéniz, Isaac. Impresiones y diarios de viaje. [Madrid]: Fundación Isaac Albéniz, DL 1990. ISBN 847506311X
• Amat Cortes, Joan. Isaac Albéniz, un català universal. [Barcelona]: Cevagraf, DL 1998.
• Aviñoa, Xosé. Albéniz. Madrid; Barcelona [etc.]: Daimon, cop. 1986. ISBN 9686024867
• Aviñoa, Xosé. La música i el Modernisme. Barcelona: Curial, 1985. (Biblioteca de cultura catalana (Curial Edicions Catalanes); 58). ISBN 8472562530
• Aviñoa, Xosé. Modernisme i Modernistes - Musica i Modernisme: Definició i Període -. Lunwerg editores, 2001.
• Clark, Walter A. Isaac Albéniz : retrato de un romántico. Madrid. Turner Música, 2002. (Turner Música). 8475065066
• Gauthier, André. Albéniz. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1978. (Clásicos de la música). ISBN 8423953300
• Guerra y Alarcón, Antonio. Isaac Albéniz. Notas crítico-biográficas de tan eminente pianista. [S.l.]: Fundación Isaac Albéniz, DL 1990. ISBN 8475063128
• Heras, Antonio de las. Vida de Albéniz. Barcelona: Ediciones Patria, [1942].
• Iglesias, Antonio. Isaac Albéniz : su obra para piano. 2 vols. Madrid: Alpuerto, DL 1987. ISBN 8438101208
• Kalfa, Jacqueline. Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) : la vocation de l'Espagne. Paris: Séguier, 2000. (Carré Musique; 4). ISBN 2840491826 (in French)
• Marco, Thomas. Spanish Music in the Twentieth Century. 1993. (in English)
• Martorell, Oriol; Valls, Manuel. Síntesi històrica de la música catalana. Sant Cugat del Vallès: Els llibres de la frontera, 1985. (in Catalan)
• Montero Alonso, José. Albéniz, España en "suite". Madrid: Editorial Sílex, 1988.
• Morales, Luisa; Clark, Walter A. Antes de Iberia : de Masarnau a Albéniz : actas del Symposium FIMTE 2008 = Pre-Iberia : from Masarnau to Albéniz : proceedings of FIMTE Symposium 2008. Garrucha: Leal; [Granada]: Centro de Documentación Musical de Andalucía, cop. 2009. (Series FIMTE; 3). ISBN 9788461353316
• Pedrell, Felip. Concierto de Albéniz. Madrid: Fundación Isaac Albéniz, 1990.
• Pérez Senz, Javier. Isaac Albéniz, 1860-1909. Cents anys : un geni romàntic. Barcelona: Institut de Cultura, Departament de Cultura i Mitjans de Comunicació, 2008. (Quaderns de l'Auditori; 7).
• Reverter, Arturo. Albéniz-Arbós, historia de una amistad. Madrid: Scherzo, 1989.
• Romero, Justo. Isaac Albéniz. Barcelona: Península, 2002. (Guías Scherzo; 14). ISBN 8483074575
• Ruiz Albéniz, Victor. Isaac Albéniz. Madrid: Comisaría General de Música, 1948.
• Salazar, Adolfo. "Isaac Albéniz y los albores del renacimiento musical en España", in Revista de Occidente, vol. 12 (Madrid, 1926), pp. 99–107.
• Sempronio. Retrats de Ramon Casas. Barcelona: Edicions Polígrafa, 1970.
• Torres, Jacinto. Las claves Madrileñas de Isaac Albéniz. Imprenta Artesanal de Madrid, 2009.
• Torres Mulas, Jacinto. Catálogo sistemático descriptivo de las obras musicales de Isaac Albéniz. Madrid : Instituto de Bibliografía Musical, DL 2001. ISBN 84607208544
• Villalba, Luis. Imagen distanciada de un compositor-pianista. Madrid: Fundación Isaac Albéniz, 1990.
• Albéniz : edición conmemorativa del centenario de Isaac Albéniz 1909-2009. [Madrid]: Ministerio de Cultura, Sociedad Cultural de Conmemoraciones Culturales, DL 2009.
• Albéniz : leyendas y verdades : Conde Duque. Sala de las Bóvedas del 11 de noviembre de 2009 al 31 de enero de 2010. Madrid: Centro Cultural del Conde Duque. Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, 2009. ISBN 9788496102514

External links

• Free scores by Isaac Albéniz at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

• Isaac Albéniz Collection at the Library of Catalonia

• Isaac Albéniz at the Centro Virtual Cervantes

• Portrait of Isaac Albéniz

• Isaac Albéniz i Pascual

• Albéniz y los guitarristas de su tiempo

• Mac McClure

• Page Patrimonio Cultural de la Fundación Albéniz at the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library.