Alicia de Larrocha y de la Calle (23 May 192325 September 2009) was a Spanish pianist and composer. She was considered one of the great piano legends of the 20th century.

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called her "the greatest Spanish pianist in history", ''

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'' "one of the world's most outstanding pianists", and ''

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'' "the leading Spanish pianist of her time". She won multiple Grammy Awards and a Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. She is credited with bringing greater popularity to the compositions of

Isaac Albéniz Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his conte ...

and

Enrique Granados Pantaleón Enrique Joaquín Granados y Campiña (27 July 1867 – 24 March 1916), commonly known as Enric Granados in Catalan or Enrique Granados in Spanish, was a composer of classical music, and concert pianist from Catalonia, Spain. ...

. In 1995, she became the first Spanish artist to win the

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Prize.

Life and career

Alicia de Larrocha was born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

, Spain. She began studying piano with Frank Marshall at the age of three. Both her parents were pianists and she was also the niece of pianists. She gave her first public performance at the age of five at the

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. She performed her first concert at the age of six at the

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Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

in 1929, and had her orchestral debut at the age of 11. By 1943, her performances were selling out in Spain. She began touring internationally in 1947, and in 1954 toured North America with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 1966, she engaged in a first tour of Southern Africa which proved so wildly popular that three further tours were completed In 1969, de Larrocha performed in Boston for the

Peabody Mason Concert Benefactor The name Peabody Mason comes from Miss Fanny Peabody Mason, who until her death in 1948 was an active patron of music both in the United States and abroad. Her musical interests were piano, singing and chamber music. Concert series ...

series. De Larrocha, writes Jed Distler, "started composing at age seven and continued on and off until her 30th year, with a prolific spurt in her late teens," and while she never performed her works in public, she gave her family the choice of making them available after her death, which they have done. De Larrocha made numerous recordings of the solo piano repertoire and in particular the works of composers of her native Spain. She is best known for her recordings of the music of

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first ...

Federico Mompou Frederic Mompou Dencausse (; alternatively Federico Mompou; 16 April 189330 June 1987) was a Spanish and Catalan composer and pianist. He is remembered for his solo piano music and songs. Life Early years Mompou was born in Barcelona to the ...

, and

, as well as her 1967 recordings of

Antonio Soler Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...

's keyboard sonatas. She recorded for

Hispavox Hispavox S.A. was a major Spanish record company founded on June 27, 1953, that run independently until 1985 when it was acquired by EMI. Their studios were located in Madrid, and were known among fans as Sonido Torrelaguna. EMI owned the Hispa ...

, CBS/Columbia/Epic, BMG/RCA and London/Decca, winning her first Grammy Award in 1975 and her last one in 1992, at the age of almost seventy. She received the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 1994. De Larrocha spoke in a 1978 interview with Contemporary Keyboard,

I don't believe there is a 'best' of anything in this life. I would say, though, that Granados was one of the great Spanish composers, and that, in my opinion, he was the only one that captured the real Romantic flavor. His style was aristocratic, elegant and poetic – completely different from Falla and Albéniz. To me, each of them is a different world. Falla was the one who really captured the spirit of the Gypsy music. And Albéniz, I think was more international than the others. Even though his music is Spanish in flavor, his style is completely Impressionistic.

Less than five feet tall and with small hands for a pianist, spanning an interval of barely a tenth on the keyboard, in her younger years she was nonetheless able to tackle all the big concertos ( all five by

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

's No. 1,

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

's No. 2,

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

's Nos. 2 and 3, both of Ravel's, and those of

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...

, Bartók,

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and Khachaturian, and many more), as well as the wide spans demanded by the music of Granados, Albéniz, and de Falla. She had a "long fifth finger" and a "wide stretch between thumb and index finger" which enhanced her technical ability. "She made her first recordings, of Chopin, at age 9, her feet not yet able to reach the pedals" and was considered a great interpreter of Chopin. As she grew older she began to play a different style of music; more Mozart and Beethoven were featured in her recitals and she became a regular guest at the "Mostly Mozart Festival" of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. In 2001, she was named Honorary Member of the Foundation for Iberian Music at The City University of New York. De Larrocha retired from public performance in October 2003, aged 80, following a 76-year career. Alicia de Larrocha died on 25 September 2009 in Quiron Hospital,

, aged 86. She had been in declining health since breaking her hip five years previously. Her husband, the pianist Juan Torra, with whom she had two children, had died in 1982.

List of awards and nominations

De Larrocha won several individual awards throughout her lifetime. Her extended discography has been recognized with 14 Grammy nominations (1967, 1971, 1974,1975 (x2), 1977 (x2), 1982 (x2), 1984, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992), of which she won four. She received honorary degrees from universities in

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, Middlebury College, Vermont, and

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. A crater on the planet Mercury has been named in her honor. , - , 1960 , , Albéniz: ''Iberia'' – Books II & III (

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, , , - , 1968 , , Granados: ''

Goyescas ''Goyescas'', Op. 11, subtitled ''Los majos enamorados'' (''The Gallants in Love''), is a piano suite written in 1911 by Spanish composer Enrique Granados. It was inspired by the work of the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. The piano pieces have no ...

'' – Book II, ''Escenas románticas'' (

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Edison Award The Edison Award is an annual Dutch music prize awarded for outstanding achievements in the music industry. It is comparable to the American Grammy Award. The Edison award itself is a bronze replica of a statuette of Thomas Edison, designed b ...

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Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

, , , - ,

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, , Ravel: Concerto For Left Hand and Concerto For Piano in G; Faure: Fantaisie for piano and orchestra (Decca) , , Grammy Award , , , - ,

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: Piano Sonata in B minor (Decca) , , Franz Liszt Award (

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and

Xavier Montsalvatge Xavier Montsalvatge i Bassols (; 11 March 1912 – 7 May 2002) was a Spanish composer and music critic. He was one of the most influential music figures in Catalan music during the latter half of the 20th century. Biography Life Montsalvatge w ...

: Piano Works (RCA) , , Japan Record Academy Award , , , - , 1978 , , — , , Musician of the Year - Musical America (magazine) , , , - , 1988 , , — , , Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres , , , - , 1994 , , — , , Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts , , , - , 1995 , , — , ,

Prize , , , - , 1961 , , — , , Paderewski Memorial Medal (London), , , -

References

External links

Interview
from ''

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''
iclassicsBarnes and Noble

''

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'' obituary
Renowned pianist de Larrocha dies
– BBC News obituary
Alicia de Larrocha (1923–2009)
– BBC Music Magazine
Alicia de Larrocha: pianist
– ''

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'' (UK)
Alicia de Larrocha, Shy Virtuoso
– ''

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''
Some photos, programs and introductions on her four highly successful Southern Africa tours, 1965-75

Collection of unpublished magnetic tapes of her live performances

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larrocha, Alicia De 1923 births 2009 deaths Grammy Award winners Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Catalan pianists Musicians from Barcelona Spanish classical pianists Spanish women pianists 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century Spanish musicians Spanish women composers Women classical pianists Spanish classical composers 20th-century Spanish women 20th-century women pianists