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Albéniz - Piano Music

Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) made his debut as a pianist at the age of five, dressed by his parents as a French musketeer. When he got a little older, he repeatedly ran away from home to perform in various Spanish cities. At 15 he travelled to the New World, according to legend as a stowaway on a freight ship, carrying only his musketeer’s dress. He is then supposed to have led a vagabond life throughout the Americas, giving concerts in Brazil, Cuba and the USA. Back in Europe, he enrolled in the Leipzig Conservatory, but was disappointed with the dry formality of the German educational system. In 1878 he studied with Liszt in Weimar and Budapest. His artistic career did not really blossom until he had returned to Spain and met Felipe Pedrell, "the father of Spanish music". Albeniz was inspired by Pedrell to write music rooted in the Spanish culture. From 1885 onwards, when he had settled in Madrid, he became a renowned piano teacher, and travelled widely as a virtuoso performer, his playing being compared to that of Anton Rubinstein and Liszt. He subsequently lived in London and later in Paris, where he became friends with Debussy, Fauré, Dukas and d´Indy.
Albéniz has been described as extrovert, kind, humorous, and generous, and certainly wrote music to match this joyful and exuberant personality. He composed an enormous oeuvre, mostly works for piano solo but also concertos, symphonic works and music dramas (The Magic Opal, Pepita Jimenez, Merlin). His efforts to create a Spanish national opera were met with constant opposition from the critics.
After 1900, Albéniz´s health deteriorated and his prodigious musical production diminished. Yet, these years produced his greatest masterpiece, his suite Iberia for piano - twelve pieces of such complexity and difficulty that they were first pronounced unplayable. This is probably the most important Spanish piano work of all times. Albeniz left several other important additions to the piano repertoire, such as the suites España, Cantos de España and Recuerdos de Viaje.

Piano Sheet music by Isaac Albéniz to Download

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Total pieces by Albéniz: 38

Title	Key	Published	Type	Level
Aragòn	F Major	-	Piece	8+
Barcarolle Catalene	D-flat Major	-	Piece	7
La Vega	A-flat Minor	-	Piece	8+
Rapsodia Espagñola	n/a	-	Piece	8+
Tango Espagnol	A Minor	-	Piece	8
Zortzico	E Minor	-	Piece	8+
Rapsodia Cubana - op 66	G Major	-	Piece	8+
Sérénade Espagnole - op 181	D-flat Major	-	Piece	8
Mallorca (Barcarola) - op 202	F-sharp Minor	-	Piece	8
Iberia Albeniz’s masterpiece is a collection of “impressions” trying to capture the sound and rhythms of Spain. Inspired by his compatriot’s Joaquin Malats’s interpretation of Triana from the second book, Albeniz composed book three and four with this pianist’s great abilities in mind, creating music of extreme difficulty. The work has been orchestrated by Enrique Fernández Arbós and Carlos Surinach.
Evocation no 1	A-flat Minor	1906	Piece	8
El Puerto no 2	D-flat Major	1906	Piece	7
El Corpus en Sevilla no 3	F-sharp Minor	1906	Piece	8+
Rondeña no 4	D Major	1906	Piece	8
Almería no 5	n/a	1906	Piece	8+
Triana no 6	n/a	1906	Piece	8+
El Albaicín no 7	n/a	1907	Piece	8+
El Polo no 8	F Minor	1907	Piece	8+
Lavapiés no 9	F Minor	1907	Piece	8+
Málaga no 10	n/a	1908	Piece	8+
Jerez no 11	C Major	1908	Piece	8+
Eritaña no 12	n/a	1908	Piece	8+
España Composed during the apex of Albeniz’s concert career, España is one of Albeniz’s early efforts to write music inspired by Spanish culture, less well known than his later masterpiece Iberia. The second piece, “Tango” is sometimes heard in Leopold Godowsky’s transcription.
Preludio - op 165 no 1	n/a	1890	Piece	8+
Tango - op 165 no 2	n/a	1890	Piece	7
Malagueña - op 165 no 3	n/a	1890	Piece	8+
Serenata - op 165 no 4	n/a	1890	Piece	8+
Capricho Catalán - op 165 no 5	n/a	1890	Piece	8+
Zortzico - op 165 no 6	n/a	1890	Piece	8+
Cantos de España
Prelude / Asturias - op 232 no 1	G Minor	-	Piece	8
Oriental - op 232 no 2	D Minor	-	Piece	7
Bajo la palmera (Cuba) - op 232 no 3	E-flat Major	-	Piece	7
Códoba - op 232 no 4	n/a	-	Piece	7
Seguidillas - op 232 no 5	F-sharp Major	-	Piece	8+
The Seasons
The Spring - op 101 no 1	A Major	-	Piece	8
The Summer - op 101 no 2	D Major	-	Piece	8+
The Autumn - op 101 no 3	A Minor	-	Piece	6
The Winter - op 101 no 4	D Minor	-	Piece	8+
Suite Ancienne No 3
Minuetto no 1	G Minor	-	Suite	8+
Gavotta no 2	D Minor	-	Suite	8+

Posts in the piano forum about Albéniz:

Re: Albeniz and Granados
November 07, 2005, 08:20:52 PM by ravel

both are amazing. i voted albeniz just based on iberia, a couple of other pieces, and his rhapsodie espagnol, however granados is just as good it seems. not only his goyescas, but other pieces too., i got this cd of De Larrocha performing some of his lesser known works, it was amazing music.