Isaac Albeniz

An account of the career of Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909), a concert pianist renowned for creating a national style of Spanish piano music and fostering the growth of the concerto, orchestral music, and opera in Spain. As a touring child prodigy who supposedly stowed away on a steamer to the New World, later studied with Liszt, and eventually got ensnared in a "Faustian pact" with the wealthy English librettist, Frances Burdett Money-Coutts, his career has become the stuff of legend. Based on documentary evidence, this biography aims to debunk the mythology surrounding his career, much of it spun by the composer himself. Clark also reveals a complex individual who captured the mystery of Spain in his music yet felt estranged from his homeland in reality.