Iberia (Twelve New 'Impressions' in Four Books)

'Unwin is master of both the notes and their nationalistic message. His rhythms are taut, yet flexible; he brings out the gorgeous melodies without slobbering over them.'
American Record Guide

Iberia was the summation of Albéniz's life's work - he was to die only few months after completing the final piece of the twelve which make up this great piano cycle - and he might never have written it had he not heeded the advice of the Spanish composer and teacher Felipe Pedrell who pointed his way towards a 'profoundly national and noble art'.

After studying while living in various places, Albéniz finally settled in Paris in 1893. France was regarded at the time as a second mother country to Spanish composers, more sympathetic and more welcoming than their own. It was during a period in 1900 when back in Spain that he conceived he idea of Iberia. He worked on it back in Paris and in Nice from 1905 and published it in four books, each containing three pieces.

Albéniz described Iberia as 'impressions' and 'scenes' of various parts of Spain, a sort of musical travelogue for the ear and the imagination, concentrated in Andalucia, the hot-blooded south from where the most recognisably 'Spanish' folk tradition comes. While he was undoubtedly inspired by the songs and dances of Spanish popular music the actual themes were all his own. This is folk art transformed into high art, raw experience distilled into mature reflection, and a lingering nostalgia is never far away as Albéniz works with infinite subtlety to create a sound world ultimately all his own.