Isaac Albéniz understood his “Iberia Suite” as “Spanish music with a universal touch”. He succeeded perfectly with the colourful piano cycle, even though at the end, plagued by serious illness, he had to struggle to finish it. Claude Debussy wrote of “Iberia”: “One closes one's eyes and is bedazzled by the sheer wealth of invention in this music!” To be sure, closing one's eyes only works to a limited extent when you place this late-Romantic masterpiece, the four books of which are united here in Henle Urtext quality in a single edition, on the music stand. The pianistic challenge grows with the number of pages. Thus, all who want to be carried away by Albéniz's rhythmic and sound-painting effects, his instrumental depictions of land and people and his superb interweaving of Spanish folk music and European concert repertoire will find what they are looking for.

Editor: Norbert Gertsch