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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.

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