Enrique Granados

Spanish composer and pianist Enrique Granados ranks among the most striking figures in music at the turn of the twentieth century, and his legacy rests chiefly on a series of solo piano pieces steeped in Iberian character that frequently appear in guitar adaptations. His broader catalog encompasses extensive orchestral scores along with six operas, yet only the final stage work, Goyescas, has secured enduring recognition.

Granados entered the world in 1867 as the son of a Spanish army officer and obtained his initial training from a military bandmaster. He continued his education in Barcelona under piano instructor Francisco Jurnet and composition teacher Felipe Pedrell, preparation that led to a concentrated and formative period in Paris from 1887 to 1889 spent studying with the noted pianist and pedagogue Charles de Bériot, namesake son of the celebrated violinist. Around the close of that Parisian sojourn he finished his first substantial composition, the Valses poéticos of 1887.

Upon his return to Barcelona in 1890, Granados spent the ensuing decade balancing careers as both performer and creator, establishing a piano trio alongside Belgian violinist Mathieu Crickboom and the youthful Pablo Casals. His debut opera, Maria del Carmen, enjoyed a favorable reception at its 1898 premiere, prompting the Spanish government to award him the Order of Carlos III. He built on that momentum by bringing two additional operas to the stage within the following five years. For the 1900 concert season he launched the Society of Classical Concerts, or Sociedad de Conciertos Clásicos, in Barcelona; although the organization proved short-lived, it emboldened him to open his own piano academy, the Academia Granados, the next year. Granados remained actively engaged with the school until the end of his life.

Widely regarded as one of the outstanding pianists spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he drew consistently on Catalan and Spanish folk traditions in his writing, as illustrated by such collections as the Twelve Spanish Dances and Six Pieces on Spanish Folksongs. Together with fellow Spaniard Isaac Albéniz he played a decisive role in introducing this regional language to the wider European musical community. The Goyescas suite, initiated in 1902 and completed only in 1911, represents perhaps his most imposing accomplishment; he later fashioned an opera of the same title, both versions drawing inspiration from the vivid imagery of Goya.

In March 1916, while sailing home from the United States—where Goyescas had opened at its New York premiere on 26 January and where Granados had played at the White House for President Wilson—the liner Sussex was struck by a German U-boat torpedo. Granados and his wife of twenty-four years numbered among those lost.