Walter Aaron Clark's detailed and accurate account (the first in English) of one of the most intriguing figures of the Romantic period is now available in paperback. Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909), a renowned concert pianist, created a national style of Spanish piano music and also fostered the growth in Spain of the concerto, orchestral music, and opera. His career was to become the stuff of legend: a touring child prodigy who supposedly stowed away on a steamer to the New World, he later studied with Liszt, and eventually became ensnared in a 'Faustian pact' with the wealthy English librettist Frances Burdett Money-Coutts. Based on a wealth of new and previously overlooked documentary evidence, this biography debunks the mythology surrounding Albéniz's career--much of it spun by the composer himself--and reveals a complex individual who was able to capture the mystery of Spain in his music yet who in reality felt estranged from his homeland.
