Recreaciones Utiles - Variaciones Brillantes - Fantasia Elegante... de la opera I Puritani - Lucia di Lammermoor - Fantasia brillante... de la Opera Lucia di Lammermoor - Fantasia Brillante... sobre motivos de la opera Lucrezia Borgia

A rare and remarkable gathering of six musical collections for pianoforte: four by the Spanish composer Pedro Pérez de Albéniz, together with two scarce Madrid imprints of fantasies by the Austrian composer Carl Czerny.

Bound in half brown shagreen, smooth spine gilt-tooled with fillet lines, gilt lettering-piece, boards covered in blue gauffred percaline, endpapers in blue paper. Some skilful restoration to the boards, corners, edges and spine. Scattered foxing throughout.

A particularly fine copy, the first two collections bearing the autograph signature of Albéniz, and the third his ink stamp with his initials. A figure of complete artistic stature, Albéniz stands as one of the foremost representatives of Spanish Romantic piano music, both as a pedagogue and as a composer.

Albéniz belongs to the circle of musicians who introduced Romanticism to Spain following an advanced course of study in Paris, undertaken across four extended visits between 1825 and 1829, during which he assimilated the innovations of the Romantic pianoforte and studied under Herz and Kalkbrenner. He entered into contact with the most distinguished figures of the movement, among them Fétis and Rossini, with whom he maintained a personal and professional relationship throughout his career. In the lyric field, he was a contemporary of Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti, both of whom enjoyed exceptional popularity in Spain. He composed pianoforte fantasies on airs from the great successes of these composers, two of which are represented in the present volume alongside an arrangement by Czerny after Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia and Lucia di Lammermoor. Beyond his standing within the Romantic movement, Albéniz was a committed liberal sympathiser. Among the most eloquent expressions of his political convictions is the composition, at the heart of one of Spain's darkest decades, of the Variaciones brillantes para pianoforte sobre el Himno de Riego, op. 28 (1825), the rare printed score of which is included in this volume and which is regarded as one of his most celebrated works. This hymn was subsequently adopted as the national anthem of the Spanish Republic between 1931 and 1939. Notwithstanding these convictions, he remained celebrated for his close proximity to the Spanish royal family: in addition to his position at the Royal Conservatoire, he was appointed pianoforte master to Queen Isabella II and to her sister, the Infanta María Luisa Fernanda, on 19 January 1841, and enjoyed the personal patronage of King Ferdinand VII. His role as pianist to His Majesty exercised a determining influence over the greater part of his compositions for pianoforte, conceived expressly for the royal family: two of the four pieces by Albéniz contained in this volume are dedicated to the Queen and the Infanta respectively. From this period, his musical activity was centred principally upon the Royal Palace, in his capacities as teacher, composer, and performer. His works were frequently given their first performance there, typically dedicated to Queen Isabella II or to her sister, who would play them before any other audience. Several title-pages in the volume bear pasted labels with a San Sebastián address. Having undertaken part of his early formation in that city, Albéniz served as organist at the church of San Vicente de San Sebastián from the age of ten, and subsequently as choir director at the church of Santa María, succeeding his father in that post in 1827.