Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz Biography :: essays research papers

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albà ©niz was born on May 29, 1860 in Camprodà ³n, the Catalan province of Gerona in northeastern Spain. As a child he was exceptionally gifted at the piano and gave his first public performance in Barcelona at the age of four. Two years later his mother took him to Paris where, for nine months, he studied privately with a renowned professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory. An attempt was made to enroll Albà ©niz at the Conservatory, but the boy was denied admission because he was too young. Upon returning to Spain he gave several concerts and published his first composition, Marcha Militar. In 1868 the Albà ©niz family moved to Madrid where Isaac began studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music. The boy’s astonishing pianistic ability inspired great praise and he was acclaimed as Spain’s greatest prodigy, often being compared to Mozart. Soon, however, Albà ©niz became restless and impatient with his studies and attempted many times to run away from home. Twice he ran away from home and supported his living by playing piano for the public and, sometimes, a job as a potter at the deck. After returning home and with the companion of his father, Albà ©niz first performed in the New World in the spring of 1875 when he gave a series of concerts in Puerto Rico. From there he traveled to Cuba where, in the fall of 1875, he gave several more concerts before returning to Spain. Upon returning to Spain, the 15 year old Albà ©niz gave concerts in several Spanish cities, including Barcelona, Valencia, and Salamanca. Realizing that his child prodigy days were nearing an end, and that the transition from child prodigy to mature artist is never a simple one, Albà ©niz enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory where he hoped to gain the measure of credibility that one gets from studying at a world famous institution. While there he studied piano with students of Liszt. Short of money, ill at ease with the German language, and unhappy with the rigorous discipline imposed on him by his teachers, Albà ©niz returned to Spain after spending less than two months in the Saxon city where Bach, Schumann, and Mendelssohn once lived. Later that same year, Albà ©niz obtained a royal stipend to study at the Brussels Conservatory where, in 1879, he won first prize in piano performance. Following this he made a well-publicized tour of Europe.