Release Date: 01 January 2000
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099472821
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: ALBERT
Description
Eugen d'Albert (1864-1932) Piano Concerto No.1 in B minor, Op. 2 Piano Concerto No.2 in E major, Op. 12 Overture: Esther, Op. 8Born in Glasgow in 1864, of remoter Italian ancestry, the Germancomposer and pianist Eugen d'Albert was a significant figure among the virtuosopianists of the generation after Liszt. Today, however, his name andcompositions are largely forgotten. His father Charles d'Albert had studied thepiano under Kalkbrenner and became ballet - master at Covent Garden, compilingan influential treatise, Ballroom Etiquette.Their ancestors included Domenico Alberti, originator of the Albertibass, a figuration popular in classical keyboard writing, and the family haddistinguished military association; Fran?ºois Benoit d'Albert, the composer'sgrandfather, a French cavalry officer, had died at Waterloo.Seeking his fortune in England, Charles d'Albert settled in Newcastleupon Tyne, working as a dancing-master, conductor and impresario. Following hismarriage in 1863 to Annie Rowell, the family moved to 9, Newton Terrace,Glasgow, where Eugen was born on 10th April 1864. The boy had his musicaltraining from his father, displaying exceptional promise in childhood. In histwelfth year he won a scholarship to the newly established National TrainingSchool for Music, later the Royal College of Music, and the family moved toLondon, taking lodgings in South Kensington. One of d'Albert's fellow-students,W.G. Alcock, later recalled the young virtuoso's astonishing performance at theentrance examination. 'I remember standing at the door watching a chubby boyplaying the >Concerto in A minorbyHummel. At its conclusion Ernst Pauer (one of the adjudicators and an eminentvirtuoso) declared "You will study with me!", sensing futurepossibilities. By the time he was fifteen, d'Albert's technical command andsense of interpretation were far beyond his years'.Wagner's London performances in 1877 had a marked influence. Muchdiverted by this 'music of the future', d'Albert quickly absorbed the progressiveharmonic language of Wagner's music-dramas, later making use of similartechniques in his own stage-works. Of some twenty operas by d'Albert, only his Tiefland. Opus 34, with a libretto byRudolph Lothar based on Angel Guimera' s TierraBaixa (The Lowlands), first performed in Prague in 1903, continuesin modern repertory. Flauto solo, amusical comedy, after Hans von Wolzogen, on the life of Frederick the Great,first performed in Prague in 1905, also then considered a masterpiece, was onlyone of d'Albert's major achievements that has not stood the test of time.In his final year at the Royal College of Music d'Albert performedSchumann's Piano Concerto beforethe Prince and Princess of Wales, to whom he was later presented by Sullivan,at the old St James' Hall in London, and was invited to visit Queen Victoria atOsborne House, where he accompanied the Duke of Edinburgh, an accomplishedamateur violinist. D'Albert's most decisive meeting, however, was with thegreat Hans Richte
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
