Eugen d'Albert

Eugen Francis Charles d'Albert (10 April 1864 – 3 March 1932) was a Scottish-born German pianist and composer.

Biography

D'Albert was born in Glasgow to an English mother, Annie Rowell, and a German-born father of French and Italian descent, Charles Louis Napoleon d'Albert. His father was a dancer, pianist and music arranger who had been ballet-master at the King's Theatre and at Covent Garden. [ [http://www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=4150 This link shows piano music by Charles d'Albert of dance arrangements of numerous Gilbert and Sullivan pieces.] ] D'Albert was raised in Glasgow and taught music by his father until he won a scholarship to the New Music School and Royal College of Music in London at the age of 10. There he studied with Ernst Pauer, Ebenezer Prout, John Stainer, and Arthur Sullivan. He showed early talent at the piano, playing Schumann's piano concerto at The Crystal Palace at the age of 16, and began to compose works of his own.Macdonald, Hugh [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40935"D'Albert, Eugen Francis Charles (1864–1932)",] "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 11 October 2008]

In 1880, D'Albert arranged the piano reduction for the vocal score of Sullivan's sacred music drama "The Martyr of Antioch", to accompany the chorus in rehearsal. [ [http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/other_sullivan/martyr/conductor.html Information about "The Martyr of Antioch"] ] He is credited with writing the overture to Gilbert and Sullivan's 1881 opera, "Patience", [Biographer Michael Ainger wrote that on the evening of 21 April 1881, "Sullivan gave his sketch of the overture to Eugene d'Albert to score. D'Albert was a seventeen-year-old student... and winner of the Mendelssohn Scholarship that year" (Ainger, p. 195). David Russell Hulme studied the handwriting in the manuscript score of "Patience" and confirmed that it is that of Eugene, not of his father Charles (as had erroneously been reported by biographer Arthur Jacobs), both of whose script Hulme sampled. (Hulme, David Russell, Doctoral Thesis "The Operettas of Sir Arthur Sullivan: a study of available autograph full scores", 1985, University of Wales, pp. 242-43. The Thesis is available from academic libraries including The British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa, Wetherby W. Yorks, Ref # DX171353, and Northern Illinois University, Call# :ML410.S95 H841986B).] although d'Albert later said that he considered his work during this period worthless. [ [http://www.arbiterrecords.com/notes/147notes.html d'Albert quote] ] In 1881, Hans Richter brought d'Albert to Vienna, Austria, where he met Brahms, Schumann, Franz Liszt and other important musicians who influenced his style. D'Albert, who had always considered himself German, changed his first name from Eugène to Eugen and emigrated to Germany, where he became a pupil of the elderly Liszt in Weimar, Germany.

Piano career and compositions

In Germany, D'Albert he built a career as a pianist. Liszt called him "the young Tausig", and D'Albert can be heard in an early recording of Liszt works. D'Albert toured extensively, including in the United States from 1904 to 1905. His virtuoso technique was compared to that of Busoni. He has been praised for his playing of J. S. Bach's preludes and fugues and of Beethoven's sonatas. He also transcribed Bach's organ works for the piano and composed a cadenza for Beethoven's piano concerto no. 4. Gradually, D'Albert's work as a composer occupied his time more and more, and he reduced his concert playing.

D'Albert was a prolific composer. His output includes a large volume of successful piano and chamber music and lieder. He also composed twenty-one operas that premiered mostly in Germany. His most successful opera was his seventh, "Tiefland", which premiered in Prague in 1903. It played in opera houses throughout the world and has retained a place in the standard German and Austrian repertoire, with a production at Deutsche Oper Berlin, in November 2007. According to biographer Hugh Macdonald, it "provides a link between Italian verismo and German expressionist opera, although the orchestral textures recall a more Wagnerian language." Another stage success was a comic opera called "Flauto solo" in 1905. His most successful orchestral works included his cello concerto (1899), a symphony, two string quartets and two piano concertos.

Personal life and death

D'Albert's friends included Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner, Engelbert Humperdinck and Gerhart Hauptmann, the dramatist. He was married six times and produced had eight children. The first wife was Louise Salingré. The second, from 1892 to 1895, was the Venezuelan pianist, singer and composer Teresa Carreño, 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., cite book|last=Walker|first=Alan|authorlink=Alan Walker (musicologist)|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=BWL6fBaKHzcC&pg=RA1-PA422&lpg=RA1-PA422&dq=%22your+children+and+my+children+are%22+%22our+children%22+albert&source=web&ots=kaWOBH-2Gb&sig=eihZNEBNJEMnim9LnJszrH0-fsM |title=Franz Liszt : The final years, 1861-1886|isbn=0-8014-8453-7|pages=p. 423, footnote 14|date=1997|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY] The line, however, has also been attributed to others. His later wives were were Hermine Finck, Ida Fulda, Fritzi Jauner and Hilde Fels. He later had a mistress, Virginia Zanetti.

In 1914, D'Albert became a Swiss citizen and moved to Zürich. He died in 1932 at the age of 69 in Riga, Latvia, where he had traveled for a divorce from his sixth wife. He was buried in the beautiful cemetery overlooking Lake Lugano in Morcote, Switzerland.

Works

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) [http://hdl.handle.net/1802/4367 Vocal Score]
* "Die toten Augen" (1916) [http://hdl.handle.net/1802/2944 Vocal Score]
* "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)

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)

Chamber works

* Suite in D minor for piano Op. 1 (1883) [http://hdl.handle.net/1802/1961 Musical score]
* Eight Piano pieces Op. 5
* Waltzes for piano, four hands Op. 6 [http://hdl.handle.net/1802/1351 Musical score]
* 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)

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

Media

Notes

References

*Ainger, Michael (2002). "Gilbert and Sullivan – A Dual Biography". Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*Fincher, L. (ed.), "Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Personenteil", 2nd edn, 1 (Kassel, 1999)
*Pangels, Charlotte. "Eugen d'Albert: Wunderpianist und Komponist: eine Biographie". (Zürich; Freiburg i Br.: Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag, 1981). ISBN 3-7611-0595-9.
*Raupp, Wilhelm. "Eugen d'Albert. Ein Künstler- und Menschenschicksal". (Leipzig: Koehler und Amelang, 1930).
*Sadie, S (ed.) "The new Grove dictionary of opera", 4 vols. (1992)

External links

*
* [http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/music-books-a-to-g.htm Eugen d'Albert String Quartet Nos.1 & 2 sound-bites and discussion of works]