Eugen d'Albert
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Eugen Francis Charles d'Albert (April 10, 1864 – March 3, 1932) was a German pianist and composer.
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[edit] Origins
D'Albert was born in Glasgow to an English mother and a French/Italian father, Charles Louis Napoleon d'Albert, a dancer, pianist and music arranger who had formerly been ballet-master at the King's Theatre and at Covent Garden. Eugen d'Albert never spoke English fluently, and considered himself to be German.
[edit] Life
Eugen was taught by his father until he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London. There he studied with Ernst Pauer, Ebenezer Prout, John Stainer, and Arthur Sullivan. He arranged the piano reduction for the vocal score of Sullivan's sacred music drama The Martyr of Antioch, to accompany the chorus [1]. While he later said that he considered his work during this period more or less worthless[2], he is credited with writing the overture to Sullivan's Patience.[1].
He became a pupil of the elderly Franz Liszt in Weimar, and can be heard in an early recording of that composer's works. Liszt called him "the young Tausig".
His output includes a symphony, two string quartets, two piano concertos, a cello concerto, and many lieder and piano works. His greatest compositional successes, however, were his many operas, though these have not maintained a place in the repertoire.
D'Albert was married six times, one of his wives being the Venezuelan pianist, singer and composer Teresa Carreño (1892-95), herself much married. D'Albert and Carreño were the subject of a famous joke: "Come quick! Your children and my children are quarreling again with our children!" (see, e.g., Walker, Alan Franz Liszt, (1996) Cornell University Press, p. 423, footnote 14. ISBN 0801484537 The line, however, has also been attributed to others.).[3]
He died in Riga, where he had traveled for the divorce from his sixth wife. He was buried in the beautiful cemetery overlooking Lake Lugano in Morcote, Switzerland.
[edit] Works
[edit] Operas
- Der Rubin (1893)
- Ghismonda (1895)
- Gernot (1897)
- Die Abreise (1898)
- Kain (1900)
- Der Improvisator (1902)
- Tiefland (1903)
- Flauto solo (1905)
- Tragaldabas (1907)
- Izëyl (1909)
- Die verschenkte Frau (1912)
- Liebesketten (1912)
- Die toten Augen (1916)
- Der Stier von Olivera (1918)
- Revolutionshochzeit (1919)
- Scirocco (1921)
- Mareike von Nymwegen (1923)
- Der Golem (1926)
- Die schwarze Orchidee (1928)
- Die Witwe von Ephesos (1930)
- Mister Wu (1932; unfinished)
[edit] Orchestral works
- Piano Concerto No. 1 in B minor Op. 2 (1884)
- Symphony in F major Op. 4 (1886)
- Esther Op. 8 (1888)
- Piano Concerto No. 2 in E major Op. 12 (1893)
- Cello Concerto in C major Op. 20 (1899)
- Aschenputtel. Suite Op. 33 (1924)
- Symphonic Prelude to Tiefland Op. 34 (1924)
[edit] Chamber works
- Suite in D minor for piano Op. 1 (1883)
- Eight Piano pieces Op. 5
- String Quartet No. 1 in A minor Op. 7 (1887)
- Piano sonata in F sharp minor Op. 10 (1893)
- String Quartet No. 2 in E flat major Op. 11 (1893)
[edit] Vocal music
- Der Mensch und das Leben Op. 14 (1893)
- Seejungfräulein Op. 15 (1897)
- Wie wir die Natur erleben Op. 24 (1903)
- Mittelalterliche Venushymne Op. 26 (1904)
- An den Genius von Deutschland Op. 30 (1904)
- d'Albert also wrote total of 58 lieder for voice and piano, published in 10 volumes
[edit] Bibliography
- Raupp, Wilhelm. Eugen d'Albert. Ein Künstler- und Menschenschicksal. (Leipzig: Koehler und Amelang, 1930).
- Pangels, Charlotte. Eugen d'Albert: Wunderpianist und Komponist: eine Biographie. (Zürich; Freiburg i Br.: Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag, 1981). ISBN 3-7611-0595-9.
- Ainger, Michael (2002). Gilbert and Sullivan – A Dual Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
