One of the most adventurous and likeable people that we have met in the history of music is Isaac Albeniz (1860–1909). He was born in Spain and started his travels when he was a few days old. He ran away from home when he was nine years old and toured about, making money by playing the piano. He loved travel and his life as a young man is a series of runnings-away-and-being-brought-back. He became a very great pianist and Alphonso XII was so pleased with his playing and so delighted with his personality, that at fifteen he was granted a pension and being free from money worry, he realized the dream of his life and went to see Franz Liszt.
He became a player approaching Von Bülow and Rubinstein in skill.
He kept composing attractive and popular Spanish tunes using the rich, rhythmic Spanish folk songs in rather new and modern harmony. He finally decided to give up his life as a popular composer and brilliant pianist, and settled down to serious composition. The next thirty pieces took him longer to write than his four hundred popular songs!
In 1893 he went to Paris in a most wonderful period, and met Debussy, Fauré, Duparc and d’Indy.
His most important composition is Iberia, a collection of twelve Spanish piano pieces. Among his other things are Serenade, Orientale and Aragonaise, all in Spanish dress.
He was a very rare personality with a rich nature, exuberant, happy and merry, even until his death.
He was the real center of Spanish music and influenced all who came after him. He was to Spain what Grieg was to Norway, Chopin to Poland, Moussorgsky to Russia, and Dvorak to Bohemia or Czecho-Slovakia.
Enrique Granados
Following Albeniz, was another great Spaniard, Enrique Granados (1867–1916), who was born in Lérida, Spain, and met a tragic death on a transport in the English Channel during the World War. Unlike Albeniz, he did not write in a modern vein, but rather in the accustomed harmonies. He was more Spanish for this reason than Albeniz, less original and without the great charm of the other master.
The only opera in Spanish that has ever been sung at the Metropolitan Opera House was his Goyescas in 1916. The principal rôle was sung by Anna Fitziu. First he wrote this as an opera in 1899. Later he made a piano version of it, very much like a suite, which was played with great success by Ernest Schelling. He also wrote symphonic poems among which was Dante with a vocal part, sung by Sophie Braslau, in 1915, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.