Isaac Albeniz (1860 - 1909)

Isaac Albéniz is regarded today as a pioneer in the rebirth of the Spanish music at the beginning of the XXs. Equipped with a generous temperament and an inspiration without limits, he gives to his music an Andalusian character, mixing with the romantic influence of Mendelssohn, Schumann or Liszt. He's one of the first Spanish type-setters, with Granados, to base a music on traditional popular elements and to open the way to his successors of which most faithful representing is Manuel of Falla.

Isaac Albéniz is born on May 29th, 1860 in Camprodon, Catalonia. He's an incredibly early child, beginning the piano at age three and gives his first recitals in front of a public as of the following year. Such a genius is not without recalling the Mozart young person. So, he lives only for concerts, rounds during which he acquires technique, experiment and become virtuoso and even improviser. 

Nevertheless in 1872-1873, he makes a running away which leads him to the United States and in South America. His life is then not easy: in 1874, he's even victim of a crisis of yellow fever!

After these hard months, Albéniz comes back home and succeeds in obtaining a purse to follow the teaching of Brassin to Brussels. He seems happy: he meets Liszt in 1880, gives many concerts in South America, in Cuba, in Spain… He also starts to compose his first works and writes some zarzuelas (1882). He meets his future wife, marry her and move quickly at Barcelona then in Madrid (1885).

His first works are very influenced by the academism and the romanticism of Mendelssohn, Schumann or Liszt, and carry the mark of hispanism of the zarzuelas. He gives up nevertheless the traditional methods rather quickly and forges his own style in his piano music. The various parts of the "Suite Espagnole" even enable him to be regarded as the founder of the Spanish school.

In 1890, Albéniz seeks other horizons. He settles in London during three years in order to obtain a success in the field of the opera. In 1894, he lives in Paris and enters the closed circle of the franckists. He meets Debussy, Dukas or Fauré and becomes even piano teacher in Schola Cantorum.

In Paris, it composes some successes, such "La Vega" and "Les Chants d'Espagne" (1897) which enable him to be finally a recognized artist. Spain, on the other hand, remains insensitive. Disappointed by this reception, he disavows his native land ; the four books of "Iberia" shows this disappointment. 

Albéniz dies on May 18th, 1909 at age 47 of Bright's disease, and is buried at the Montjuic Cemetery, Barcelona. 

Except some zarzuelas, vocal works and some parts for orchestra, Isaac Albéniz composes especially for the piano. His work is immense, written and improvised. Unfortunately for us, most of his production is lost. That is due to the type-setter and his unmethodical spirit, at the musical bottom transmitted of an editor to another that with a chaotic classification of opus. As for the catalog remaining in our possession, it reveals self-educated Albéniz, improvisation's virtuoso, sometimes imitating the romantic ones, sometimes a typically Spanish music which reflects pretty musical postcards. Today, contemporaries like Messiaen or Stockhausen always use his pianistic's langage.