Music Banter - 150 years of Isaac Albéniz

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150 years of Isaac Albéniz

The Google drawing (doodle) has reminded me this anniversary. May 29th. On today's date back in 1860, Isaac Albéniz was born.

A child prodigy, he started to play piano at the age of four. His most famous works, both for piano, are Suite Iberia and Suite Española Op. 47. According to French expert Olivier Messiaen:

Quote:

"Iberia is the wonder for the piano; it is perhaps on the highest place among the most brilliant pieces for the king of the instruments.”

Musicians say they are very complex compositions, and ones of the most difficult piano works to play ever. I'm totally ignorant of those technical subjects, but to me, their musical evocations are simply A-M-A-Z-I-N-G (can't find the words).

They say the best performer of Albéniz's works was Alicia de Larrocha. Who was Alicia de Larrocha? Well, Dudley Moore tell us. Now, here she plays Corpus in Seville (Book I) and Triana (Book II) from Suite Iberia:

Two excerpts more from Suite Iberia: Albaicín (Book 3) and Eritaña (Book 4), also by De Larrocha:

Regarding the Suite Española, perhaps its best known piece is Asturias. Apart from this, another Albéniz's piece I like very much is Mallorca (Op. 202). Alicia de Larrocha, once again:

There have been made arrangements for guitar. So, for example, we can also listen to John Williams (the Australian guitarist, not the film-music composer :)) making an awesome performance. Even The Doors included fragments of Asturias in Spanish Caravan:

Brilliant! Thanks for the education :)

This is not entirely unfamiliar, at least there are some familiar sounds here (Asturias) .. I'm definetly gonna take some of the information in this thread and do a little diggin'!

^ Thanks. I thought Albéniz deserved it. In the last quarter of the 19th century and the first of the 20th, after a very long time being in a disastrous musical situation since the early Baroque, finally there were again Spanish musicians of International renown (Albéniz, Granados, Tárrega, Falla, Sarasarte, Joaquín Rodrigo, etc.).

Albéniz is perhaps the best known amongst the Classical music lovers, but due to our chronic lack of Classical-music culture in a popular level (contrary to what happens in Central and Eastern Europe), he's not as known in his native country as he should be. :(