Enric Granados Campiña (Lérida, 1867- English Channel 1916) was a late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Catalan Spanish composer, piano virtuoso and acknowledged piano teacher. A contemporary of composers Albéniz, Malats and Saint-Saëns and cello virtuoso Pablo Casals - and born about ten years earlier than De Falla – opinion is divided between deeming him as a late-Romantic or a neo-Romantic composer, once he was the creator of a very personal Romantic style. One way or another, Granados - considered by Aaron Clark the ‘poet of the piano’[1] - is renowned as an expoent of Spanish nationalism – along with Albéniz and De Falla.
Having spent his first years in Lérida, Granados moved to Barcelona in 1874, where he enrolled in piano classes with Francesc Xavier Jurnet at the Escolonía de La Mercé and in composition classes with Pedrell, soon becoming a prodigy. Later, he would take classes with Joan Baptista Pujol - who had studied with Mallorcan pianist Pere Tintorer (former student of Lizst) and was considered the greatest piano instructor in Barcelona – at the Pujol Academy. The Academy was renowned as the forge of Catalan pianists, where Albéniz and Malats (teacher of Mompou) were also students.
In 1887 Granados moved to Paris, and during two very influencial years he took classes with famous Parisian pianist and teacher Charles de Bériot. Those were years of direct contact with the main French composers of the time – Ravel, Debussy, Fauré, d’Indy and Dukas – and in which the composer established a close relationship with Camille Saint-Saëns.
Back in Barcelona in 1890, Granados would spend the next ten years focused on building a solid career as pianist and composer. During this period he formed a very successful trio with the young Casals and famous Belgian violinist Crickboom. In 1898 he produced his first opera, Maria del Carmen – which was very well received. Two more operas were composed in the following five years. It was also during those years that Granados wrote the Serenade for Two Violins, the Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, the Carta D’Amor (dedicated to his wife Empar), the suite Poetic Waltzes (which he dedicated to Malats) and maybe his most famous work for piano, the suite Goyescas (inspired by the paintings of Goya). In the face of Goyescas’s universal success, Granados’ friend Ernest Schelling suggested he should compose an operatic version of the work – which he would complete only in 1913.
In 1900 Granados founded the Society of Classical Concerts (Sociedad de Conciertos Clásicos) which soon gave him confidence to establish his own piano school (the Granados Academy, or Academia Granados), to which he would dedicate substantial part of his time until his death. With the Academy, Granados became renowned – together with Albéniz – as the founder of the Catalan school of piano. After 1916 the Academy would be headed by the composer’s son Eduard, followed by Granados’ pupil Franck Marshall (when it became known as the Marshall Academy).
In 1914 the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918) hampered the plans for the Parisian première of the Goyescas. A deal was closed, then, with the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, for the opera to première in 1916. On Granados’ journey back to Europe in 1916, the vessel in which he and Empar travelled – the Sussex – was torpedoed by a German U-boat crossing the English channel.
The composer is best remembered for his expressive solo piano works. His main pieces for piano include the 12 danzas españolas (1890), the Escenas románticas (1903), the Goyescas suíte (1911), the Valses Poéticos and the 6 Estudios expresivos.
As seen above, not only did Granados write for piano solo but he also composed chamber music, an orchestral tone poem based on Dante’s Divine Comedy and songs for piano and voice – apart from his operistic works, which were an important contribution to the Spanish zarzuela[2].
Granados compositional style finds its centre on the Romantic influence of Chopin, Schumann, Lizst and Schubert. On a typically Romantic structure, Granados then grafted a Spanish folk idiom.
In Quejas, o la maja y el ruiseñor (from the Goyescas) notice the hues of the Romantic era and the sentimental character of the piece – made more intense by the Spanish folk music tinge.
To perform Granados, no one better than Alicia de Larrocha – an authority in the composer, having herself been a student at the Marshall Academy.
Enjoy!
References:
1.Books:
Enrique Granados, in The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London,
Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980.
2.Websites:
Enrique Granados – Albums, Pictures – Naxos Classical Music http://www.naxos.com/person/Enrique_Granados/26077.htm
Enrique
Granados: Music Biography, Credits and Discography: AllMusic http://www.allmusic.com/artist/enriqu%C3%A9-granados-mn0000189898
Gaudi
and Art Nouveau in Catalonia
