Berceuse for flute and piano, Op. 101

Isaac Albeniz (1860–1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist and composer who became a leading figure in the Spanish Nationalist school of music. His work combined the traditional structures of European classical music with the rhythms and melodic "colors" of Spanish folk music, particularly from Andalusia.
Born in Camprodon, Catalonia, Albéniz was a musical wunderkind. He gave his first public performance at age four and was admitted to the Madrid Conservatory by age nine.
He received formal training at the Brussels Conservatory, where he won first prize in piano in 1879. He later sought out Franz Liszt in Weimar and Budapest, though the extent of their actual lessons is a subject of scholarly debate.
Early in his career, he wrote light "salon" music for piano to make a living. However, under the influence of the teacher and musicologist Felipe Pedrell, he began to incorporate Spanish folk themes into his music, creating a unique "Spanish" sound.
From 1890 to 1893, he lived in London, where he wrote operettas and worked under a lucrative contract with the banker Francis Money-Coutts. He later moved to Paris, where he became part of the inner circle of French composers like Vincent d'Indy and Paul Dukas, which refined his harmonic language.
His crowning achievement is the piano suite Iberia (1905–1908), a collection of 12 "impressions" that pushed the technical boundaries of the piano and deeply influenced composers like Debussy and Ravel. Among his most notable compositions are Asturias (Leyenda) and Granada for classical guitar.