Alhambrismo!
Part 1: Adventure, Romanticism, and a Good Cigar
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz was born on May 29, 1860 in Camprodón, the Catalan province of Gerona in northeastern Spain. As a child he was exceptionally gifted at the piano and gave his first public performance in Barcelona at the age of four. Two years later his mother took him to Paris where, for nine months, he studied privately with Antoine Francois Marmontel, a renowned professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory. An attempt was made to enroll Albéniz at the Conservatory, but the boy was denied admission because he was too young. Upon returning to Spain he gave several concerts and published his first composition, Marcha Militar.1
In 1868 the Albéniz family moved to Madrid where Isaac began studying at the Escuela Nacional de Música y Declamación (now the Royal Conservatory of Music). The boy’s astonishing pianistic ability inspired great praise and he was acclaimed as Spain’s greatest prodigy, often being compared to Mozart. Soon, however, Albéniz became restless and impatient with his studies. Unhappy with his situation, he rebelled and began running away from home. Legend has it that, at age twelve, he fled to Argentina as a stowaway on a ship. While there he is said to have eked out a living playing in cafes until he was able to organize a series of concerts which yielded a considerable amount of money - enough to enable him to travel on to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the United States. According to Gilbert Chase and others, once in New York, the nearly destitute Albéniz had to work as a dock porter, transporting the baggage of well-to-do travelers as they disembarked from Spanish ships. These same writers say that Albéniz also played the piano in water-front dives, attracting attention by playing with the backs of his fingers while facing away from the piano! "With this stunt he made enough money to travel as far as San Francisco, and to pay his way back to Europe."2
In reality, Albéniz first performed in the New World in the spring of 1875 when he gave a series of concerts in Puerto Rico. From there he traveled to Cuba where, in the fall of 1875, he gave several more concerts before returning to Spain. As for the young Albéniz being a stowaway, the record shows that his father, a Spanish customs inspector, was transferred to Havana, Cuba in April 1875, and that the elder Albéniz sailed from the port of Cádiz on the 30th of that month to begin his new assignment. The record also shows that Isaac performed in Cádiz the night before his father's departure. Hence, we can safely assume that our restless prodigy first sailed to the New World in the company of his father.3
Upon returning to Spain, the 15 year old Albéniz gave concerts in several Spanish cities, including Barcelona, Valencia, and Salamanca. Realizing that his child prodigy days were nearing an end, and that the transition from child prodigy to mature artist is never a simple one, Albéniz enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory in May 1876. There he hoped to gain the measure of credibility that one gets from studying at a world famous institution.4 While there he studied piano with Louis Maas and composition with Salomon Jadassohn, both of whom were students of Liszt. Short of money, ill at ease with the German language, and unhappy with the rigorous discipline imposed on him by his teachers, Albéniz returned to Spain after spending less two months5 in the Saxon city where Bach, Schumann, and Mendelssohn once dwelled.
Later that same year, with the help of Count Guillermo Morphy, private secretary to King Alfonso XII, Albéniz obtained a royal stipend to study at the Brussels Conservatory where, in 1879, he won first prize in piano performance. Following this he made a well-publicized tour of Europe.6 His greatest ambition at the time, however, was to study with Franz Liszt. Therefore, at age twenty, he left Brussels for Budapest in order to fulfill his dream.
There are many conflicting accounts as to how long Albéniz studied with Liszt. Most sources give a period ranging from six months to two years and indicate that Albéniz followed Liszt from Budapest to Rome and Weimar. And then there is the entry in Albéniz’s own diary, quoted by the Argentine musicologist Miguel Raux Deledicque, stating that Albéniz stayed in Budapest a total of just seven days and saw Liszt only once, on the 18th of August 1880, a few days before Liszt departed Budapest for Rome (where Albéniz did not accompany him). In reality Albéniz never even met Liszt, let alone study with him, because Liszt was in Weimar, Germany on the 18th of August 1880, not Budapest. Albéniz, it seems, traveled all the way to the Hungarian capital only to find that Liszt was not in residence there at that time. And the entry in his journal was probably meant to placate his father who helped fund this excursion.7
Upon discovering that Liszt was unavailable, Albéniz returned to Madrid where he spent the next couple of years giving concerts and touring the principal towns and cities of Spain. For a while he was also the manager and conductor of a traveling zarzuela company. It was around this time that he composed his first works for the musical theater, three zarzuelas, "one of which, Cantalones de Gracia, was well received by the Madrid press."8
The year 1883 was a major turning point in Albéniz's life. After a South American tour, he settled in Barcelona where he made the acquaintance of Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922), who is sometimes described as the father of Spanish music. Pedrell was a teacher, composer, and musicologist who had done a considerable amount of research in old Spanish music. An ardent nationalist, it was "his conviction that Spanish composers should write Spanish music," i.e., music rooted in Spanish culture, "acquiring its idiom and techniques from native folk songs and dances. Pedrell's ideas made a deep impression on Albéniz,"9 who up to this point, composed almost exclusively in the European salon style of the time. That is, he composed mostly short, simple piano pieces in the style of Schubert, Chopin, and Brahms.10 The other major event of 1883 was Albéniz’s marriage to one of his pupils, Rosita Jordana.
In 1885 the couple moved to Madrid where Albéniz quickly established himself as a piano teacher and virtuoso performer of the highest rank. His playing was so impressive it was often compared to that of Liszt and Anton Rubinstein, the two most celebrated pianists of the 19th century. His career as a concert pianist reached its peak during the years 1889-92 when he toured Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and France.11 His greatest success came in London where he gave several recitals, the first of which took place at Prince’s Hall on June 12, 1889. This was followed by performances at St. James Hall, Steinway Hall, and the Crystal Palace. The measure of Albéniz’s success is demonstrated by the following review of his Prince’s Hall recital. Also of interest here is the mention of a heretofore undisclosed relationship to the Queen of Spain; a slight exaggeration, but nevertheless, something that should not be overlooked by the reader.
SENOR ALBÉNIZ - Daily Telegraph, June 13th [1889] - A Spanish Pianist - Spain is now sending us artists of her best; and, while Mr. Sarasate reigns supreme amongst our violinists during his temporary sojourn in this country, it is fitting that his native land should be represented as to another branch of executive art, by a pianists of exceptional ability. At Mr. J. [sic] Albéniz’s recital in Prince’s Hall yesterday afternoon, amateurs recognized the presence of a performer who, even amid the clash of many distinguished rivalries, may fairly claim the attention due to very remarkable gifts and acquirements. Mr. Albéniz holds the post of pianist to the Queen Regent of Spain.12 The question why he does so had an immediate answer when he sat down to play. Nothing could exceed the neatness, accuracy, and general artistic qualities of his work in pieces such as those chosen from Scarlatti and others, which made no demand upon "storm and stress." In impassioned moments Mr. Albéniz sometimes got out of his depth, and floundered about after a fashion made familiar by long experience of modern pianism. Apart from these occasions there was a call for nothing but praise of delicate taste, refined reading, and dainty execution. The Spanish artist dealt mainly with Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Chopin’s work of the same class in B flat minor, supplementing these by extracts from Mayer, Liszt, Brassin [who was one of Albéniz’s piano teachers at the Brussels Conservatory], and his own compositions. We are disposed to believe that his strength lies, like that of many other pianists, in the rendering of such compositions as Liszt’s Forest Murmurs, and comparative trifles of a kindred sort. Anyhow, these be dashed off yesterday in a style made perfectly charming by observance of all that constitutes true pianoforte playing. Mr. Albéniz was applauded with genuine enthusiasm after nearly every item in his long programme.13
But not all of his reviews were this impressive,14 nor were all his concerts well attended.15 Unfortunately for Albéniz, at the time, there were simply too many truly gifted pianists vying for the attention of the London public and press for him to remain in the spotlight for any length of time. Paderewski, Vladimir de Pachmann, Sophie Mentor, Teresa Carreńo, and Arthur Friedheim - to name but a few of many competing keyboard virtuosos - each gave several recitals in London in the spring of 1890 alone, and this fierce competition no doubt diminished Albéniz’s prospects for commercial success.16
Amid all this activity, Albéniz composed a considerable amount of music in a variety of styles; e.g., the Suites Anciennes, three suites of neo-baroque dances dating from around 1886; Deseo: Estudio de concierto, Op. 40, a concert etude in the style of Liszt; and his Chopinesque first piano concerto, Concierto fantastico, Op. 78, also composed around 1886. But more importantly, it was during this time that he began producing instrumental music that showed the influence of Spanish idioms. Pieces such as Suite Espańola, Op. 47 (Granada, Cataluńa, Sevilla, and Cuba only), Seis Danzas Espańolas, and Rapsodia Espańola, Op. 70 for piano and orchestra were all composed circa 1886-87. Torre Bermeja (Op. 92, No. 12), which was included in the aforementioned Prince’s Hall program, was written in 1889.17
Albéniz spent the years 1890 to 1893 mostly in London, where his interest in writing for the musical stage was rekindled. In addition to composing piano music and regularly giving concerts in London and other major European cities, he wrote some successful operettas and songs which led to him being temporarily appointed principal composer and conductor at the Prince of Wales Theatre.18 In 1893 he was offered this as a permanent position, but he declined the offer and instead moved back to Spain and then to Paris in the fall of 1894.19 Shortly before leaving London, Albéniz entered into a contract with a wealthy English banker, Francis Money-Coutts (Lord Latymer), whose preferred vocation was writing poetic dramas that he longed to have set to music and staged. Yielding to temptation and the prospect of financial security for himself and his young family, Albéniz agreed to set Money-Coutts’ librettos to music. The collaboration was not very successful and it is said to have caused Albéniz a considerable amount of mental anguish. They completed only three operas and some songs before the partnership dissolved in 1905. Nevertheless, their second opera, Pepita Jimenez, based on a well-known novel by Juan Valera, "remains noteworthy among modern Spanish operas, and it obtained a considerable European success, receiving performances in Barcelona (1896), Prague (1897), Brussels (1905), and Paris (Opera-Comique, June 18, 1923)."20
At the time Albéniz was composing these operas, he was living in Paris where he developed close personal relationships with many of the city’s most distinguished musicians. "He was a frequent guest at the home of Ernest Chausson, where he met such composers as Fauré, Dukas, d'Indy and Charles Bordes. Through the two last-mentioned he was brought into the inner sanctum of [the newly-founded] Schola Cantorum"21 where, during the winter of 1897-1898, he taught an advanced piano course. This rich musical environment, which was shaped by the ideas of César Franck,22 had a great impact upon Albéniz. As he came under its influence, he began to feel that his earlier works were inadequate, that they lacked sophistication, "and that he should attempt something more ambitious, something of greater architectural scope and more impressive dimensions."23 The final phase of Albéniz's career had begun.
After 1900, Albéniz’s life took a turn for the worse. He suffered from Bright’s disease, a kidney disorder that eventually took his life, his wife had also become seriously ill, and the death of one of their three children caused him great pain. During this time, he failed to complete several lyric works he had begun and was unable to get the one that he did complete (Merlin, 1898-1902) performed.24
Frustrated and in poor health, Albéniz turned his back on writing for the lyric stage and returned to the solitary task of composing piano music. Between 1905 and 1909 he produced his masterpiece, Iberia, a suite of twelve piano pieces collected in four books. Works of remarkable sophistication and technical difficulty, these "twelve new impressions" – as they are called in the subtitle – constitute an imaginative synthesis of Spanish (i.e., mostly Andalusian) folk idioms, Impressionism and European/Romantic styles influenced by Liszt, Dukas and d'Indy.
"With Iberia, Albéniz wrote his swan song."25 In March of 1909, nearly incapacitated by his affliction, he moved with his family from Nice (where they had been living since 1903) to Cambo-les-Bains in the French Pyrenees. There he died on May 18, 1909. His body was taken to Barcelona and buried in the Southwest Churchyard. Isaac Albéniz is always described as having been a kind and generous man with a keen sense of humor, an extrovert who was loved and respected by all who new him.
Albéniz with daughter Laura, ca. 1905
Part 2. The Nationalist Movement in Nineteenth-Century Spain
Part 3. A Synthesis of Styles: The Music of Isaac Albéniz