Isaac Alb'eniz

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 Alb'eniz (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 Alb'eniz'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.