This suite for piano is one of the highest points in composer Isaac Albéniz’s career, as well as for piano composition in the history of music.
The suite comprises four books of three pieces each. The Catalan composer reached the height of his later period with this work, where he, on the one hand, assimilated the postulates of the new French school and, on the other, was persuaded of the need to take old Hispanic roots and express them with new vigour: ‘making Spanish music with a universal accent’, in his own words.
He achieved this ambitious aim with this complete and renowned suite which Albéniz conceived as ‘impressions’. The last book was premièred publically by the pianist Blanche Selva just three months before her death. Albéniz’s autumnal romanticism is here vividly nuanced and moves towards impressionism.
