Albéniz: Iberia

Featuring

Nelson Goerner
Isaac Albéniz

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Composition History

Isaac Albéniz worked on the twelve pieces of Iberia, arranged in four books, between December 1905 and January 1908.

Compositional Technique

The sound of Andalusian guitar strings is very present in Albéniz's piano music, even though he never wrote for the instrument himself.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Albéniz's musical path was greatly influenced by painting, and he frequented key Catalan artists of modernism and Art Nouveau in Paris and Brussels.

Compositional Technique

Albéniz often played with contrasting musical planes, as in El Polo, creating an effect described as a "virtual exercise in Cubism."

Critical Reception

The work Iberia was considered "literally without precedent" by Vladimir Jankélévitch, who stated that "nothing of the kind had ever been heard before."

Composition History

Albéniz decided to remove the piece Navarra from Iberia because its style was considered "blatantly popular"; it was later finished by his pupil Déodat de Séverac.