Isaac Albéniz
1860 — 1909
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish virtuoso composer, conductor, and pianist. He is one of the foremost composers of the post-romantic era who also exerted a significant influence on his contemporaries and younger composers. He is best known for his piano works that incorporate Spanish folk music idioms and elements. His compositions, particularly his suite Iberia (1905–1908), are considered masterpieces and have influenced both European classical music and Spanish nationalism. Isaac Albéniz was close to the Generation of ‘98.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Isaac Albéniz.
From the period sources
Isaac Albéniz, a “fine concert-pianist” and grand-nephew of the earlier Spanish piano master Pedro Albéniz, was born in Camprodon, Spain, in 1861, according to A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1900). His extensive training included piano studies with Marmontel, Jadassohn, Reinecke, Brassin, and Liszt, while Dupont and Gevaert guided his composition studies (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). Albéniz enjoyed success as a pianist in London and elsewhere, and by 1900, he held the esteemed position of “Pianist to the Queen of Spain” (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). His compositional output was considerable, including over two hundred published piano pieces, such as the Concerto fantastico, and several stage works. These comprised the comic opera The Magic Opal, which was “very successful” in London in 1893, and the operas Enrico Clifford (Barcelona, 1895) and Pepita Jimenez (Barcelona, 1896), both also noted as “very successful” (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). His one-act zarzuela, San Antonio de la Florida, also found success in Madrid in 1895 (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). Later, Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed., 1906) noted that his opera Pepita Jimenez was given its first complete performance in French under the direction of H. F. Kufferath at the Théâtre de la Monnaie. Albéniz was still “living in London” in 1900 (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians).