Alicia de Larrocha

Alicia de Larrocha was a Spanish pianist and composer who was widely regarded as one of the greatest piano legends of the 20th century. She was especially renowned for her interpretations of Spanish composers such as Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla, and Federico Mompou, as well as classical composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, and Rachmaninoff. She was also a prolific composer herself, although she never performed her works in public. De Larrocha was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, into a musical family. Both her parents were pianists and she was the niece of pianists. She began studying piano with Frank Marshall at the age of three. Marshall was a disciple of Granados and the director of the Academia Marshall in Barcelona, where de Larrocha later succeeded him after his death in 1959. She gave her first public performance at the age of five at the International Exposition in Barcelona. She performed her first concert at the age of six at the World's Fair in Seville in 1929, and had her orchestral debut at the age of eleven. 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 series. She made her debut at the BBC Proms in London in 1972 and became a regular guest at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in New York. She performed with many leading orchestras and conductors around the world and received numerous honors and awards for her artistry. De Larrocha made over a hundred recordings for various labels, including Hispavox, CBS Columbia Epic, BMG RCA and London Decca. She won four Grammy Awards, out of fourteen nominations, and a Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. She is credited with bringing greater popularity to the compositions of Albéniz and Granados. In 1995, she became the first Spanish artist to win the UNESCO Prize. De Larrocha retired from public performance in October 2003, aged 80, following a 76-year career. She died on 25 September 2009 in Quiron Hospital, Barcelona, 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, pre-deceased her in 1982. De Larrocha was admired for her impeccable technique, expressive musicality, rich tone, and rhythmic vitality. She was also praised for her elegant and poetic style, especially in Romantic repertoire. She was considered an authority on Spanish music and a master of Mozart's concertos. She was a modest and humble person who avoided publicity and fame. She once said 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.