He was a virtuoso pianist and composer born in Glasgow to a French/Italian father and an English mother. His father was a dancer and music arranger and had been the ballet master at the King’s Theatre in Covent Garden, London.
He first studied music with his father and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London where he studied with Arthur Sullivan and arranged the piano music for the vocal score of his drama The Martyr of Antioch as well as being credited for writing the Overture for Patience. He went on to Weimar and studied with Franz Liszt who called him “the young Tausig”.
His compositions include 21 operas, with his best known being Triefland which has been the subject of two movies, a symphony, two piano concertos, two string quartets, a cello concerto, numerous piano works and lieder, and he is also noted for arranging works by Johann Sebastian Bach.
He was married six times and considered himself German and never spoke English fluently. After he had traveled to Riga to obtain a divorce from his sixth wife he died there at the age of 67.
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra recordings
Cello Concerto in C major,
Hyperion 67544 (CD: The Romantic Cello Concerto-1)
Conductor – Carlos Kalmar
Cello – Alban Gerhardt
Moscow Symphony Orchestra recordings
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B minor, Opus 2,
Naxos 8.553728 (CD: Albert: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2/Esther Overture)
Conductor – Dmitri Yablonsky
Piano – Joseph Banowetz
Piano Concerto No. 2 in E major, Op. 12
Naxos 8.553728 (CD: Albert: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2/Esther Overture)
Conductor – Dmitri Yablonsky
Piano – Joseph Banowetz
Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg recordings
Piano Concerto No. 2 in E,
Vox 7206 (CD: The Franz Liszt School, Vol. 1)
Conductor – Richard Kapp
Piano – Michael Ponti
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_d’Albert#Origins
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/eugen-dalbert-mn0001200413/biography
- http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/12.htm
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0194929/
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/1292078-Eugen-DAlbert