Isaac Albéniz: Retrato de un romántico

by Walter Aaron Clark, Paul Silles (Translator)

El paso del tiempo no ha hecho más que robustecer las leyendas que corren alrededor de la vida de Isaac Albéniz, uno de los compositores españoles más brillantes del siglo pasado, autor de la zarzuela Pepita Jiménez y de Iberia, su obra cumbre. Su precoz genialidad- a los cuatro años tocaba el piano con maestría- y el desinterés público por corroborar las historias fantásticas que se le atribuían hicieron de Albeniz una figura enigmática, muchas veces vista como ajena a la escena musical española.
En Isaac Albéniz, retrato de un romántico, Clark echa por tierra muchos mitos del artista catalán y ofrece una imagen clara y robusta de Albéniz, cuya genialidad no ha sido reconocida lo suficiente y cuya obra reclama nuevos ángulos de observación.
Un lúcido e intenso acercamiento al compositor que influyó en Debussy y Falla, indispensable para entender el devenir musical de la España actual.

Genres: Music, Biography

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[David Dunlap · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book met my goal in reading it: i.e., to learn more about Spanish pianist/composer Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909). He sounds to have been an interesting person, a bundle of contradictions (as almost all of us are). The author sums him up neatly in this sentence: "Variety within logic was his motto, but variety at the expense of logic was often his way of life." Despite health problems throughout most of his life, Albéniz over-indulged himself in cigars, liquor, food. Despite being Catalan to the core, he lived most of his life abroad (in England and, mostly, Paris). Despite his desire to make a name for himself by writing operas, he had little -- if any -- success with the ones he completed. Despite being devoted to his family, he lived apart from them at frequent intervals. -- The author demonstrates admirable command of primary sources (even providing the original language from letters, etc., in the footnotes) and the text is peppered with musical examples (perhaps too many for the general reader, accompanying them with rather technical discussion). All that said, the text is rather dry. I would have liked more information on Albéniz's family (he mentions the composer's son as being a 'prodigal' and alludes to a difficult relationship, but there are no details) -- why (to give another example) did he spend so much time away from wife Rosina, yet would write her the equivalent of a 'wish you were here' letter? One helpful thing author Clark does is to probe the relationship between composer Albéniz and his wealthy English patron, banking heir Francis Money-Coutts; far from being the inhibiting 'Faustian pact with the devil' as it is often depicted, it was a relationship that developed into deep friendship and, on Coutts's part, steady, faithful financial support to Albéniz and his family that continued after the composer's death. -- In sum, a fairly interesting book, but not a vital one.