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.[1] 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. In 1880, he arranged the piano reduction for the vocal score of Sullivan's sacred music drama The Martyr of Antioch, to accompany the chorus in rehearsal.[2] While d'Albert later said that he considered his work during this period more or less worthless,[3] he is credited with writing the overture to Gilbert and Sullivan's 1881 opera, Patience. Ainger wrote "That evening (April 21, 1881) Sullivan gave his sketch of the overture to Eugene d'Albert to score. D'Albert was a seventeen-year-old student at the National Training School (where Sullivan was the principal and supervisor of the composition department) and winner of the Mendelssohn Scholarship that year."[4] 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.[5].
D'Albert 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, the best known of which is Tiefland; this has retained a place in the German and Austrian repertoire, with a recent production at Deutsche Oper Berlin, in November 2007.
D'Albert was married six times, one of his wives being the Venezuelan pianist, singer and composer Teresa Carreño (m. 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!"[6] The line, however, has also been attributed to others.
D'Albert died in Riga, where he had traveled for a 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) Vocal Score
- Die toten Augen (1916) 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)
[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) Musical score
- Eight Piano pieces Op. 5
- Waltzes for piano, four hands Op. 6 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)
[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] Media
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Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532 Transcribed for piano by Eugen d'Albert, performed by Martha Goldstein - Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] References
- ^ This link shows piano music by Charles d'Albert of dance arrangements of numerous Gilbert and Sullivan pieces.
- ^ Information about The Martyr of Antioch
- ^ d'Albert quote
- ^ Ainger, Michael (2002). "Gilbert and Sullivan – A Dual Biography", page 195. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Hulme, David Russell, Doctoral Thesis The Operettas of Sir Arthur Sullivan: a study of available autograph full scores, 1985, University of Wales, pp. 242-243. The Thesis is available from a number of libraries (and many copies have been circulated) including The British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa, Wetherby W. Yorks, Ref # DX171353, and Northern Illinois University, Call# :ML410.S95 H841986B.
- ^ see, e.g., Walker, Alan (1997). Franz Liszt : The final years, 1861-1886. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, p. 423, footnote 14. ISBN 0-8014-8453-7.
[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.
[edit] External links
- Eugen d'Albert was listed in the International Music Score Library Project
- Eugen d'Albert String Quartet Nos.1 & 2 sound-bites and discussion of works
