Isaac Albéniz: Portrait of a Romantic

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Introduction: 'Step by Step'1. The Phenomenon (1860-75)
2. With Distinction (1876-88)
3. Veni, Vidi, Vici (1889-93)
4. Prophet with Honour (1894-95)
5. A Man of Importance (1896-7)
6. The Imperfect Wagnerite (1898-1904)
7. Iberia (1905-9)
8. The Legacy of Albeniz
Appendix 1: Genealogical Tree
Appendix 2: List of Works
General Index

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Walter Aaron Clark's detailed and accurate account (the first in English) of one of the most intriguing figures of the Romantic period is now available in paperback. Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909), a renowned concert pianist, created a national style of Spanish piano music and also fostered the growth in Spain of the concerto, orchestral music, and opera. His career was to become the stuff of legend: a touring child prodigy who supposedly stowed away on a steamer to the New World, he later studied with Liszt, and eventually became ensnared in a 'Faustian pact' with the wealthy English librettist Frances Burdett Money-Coutts. Based on a wealth of new and previously overlooked documentary evidence, this biography debunks the mythology surrounding Albéniz's career--much of it spun by the composer himself--and reveals a complex individual who was able to capture the mystery of Spain in his music yet who in reality felt estranged from his homeland.

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Clark makes a convincing case for a revision of received opinion in a clear, scholarly but readable narrative that is refreshingly untrendy ... Clark's biography has much to recommend it. I particularly enjoyed the depiction of fin-de-siecle European musical life that forms a kind of incidental accompaniment to the main story

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