In 12 movements distributed among four books, Iberia is a colorful travelogue for the listener, but a grueling, if rewarding, journey for the pianist. The music is so difficult to play that Albéniz considered destroying it. The three pieces of the first book are entirely typical of the entire suite, with their transcendent technical demands, poetic middle episodes, incisive rhythms, bold harmonies, and local color. Each piece of the complete set visits a different region of Spain. Uncharacteristically, the first item in Book 1, "Evocación," lacks a geographically specific title. It could be understood as a general introduction to the suite, although it does include elements of the Navarrese jota (Navarra was a region Albéniz visited musically only outside the Iberia sets) and the fandanguillo. The atmosphere of "Evocación" is dreamy, the content essentially monothematic, but harmonically rich and adorned with a constant filigree of notes. "Evocación" breaks the pattern of the other Iberia pieces in one other notable way: the central section is a loud, passionate climax rather than a lyrical interlude. "El Puerto" is a bustling depiction of the fishing port of Santa Maria on the Bay of Cádiz. Another monothematic piece, "El Puerto," achieves variety through rising and falling dynamics and shifting harmonies. In terms of Spanish musical styles, this is a polo, with bits of stamping characteristic of flamenco bulerías. "El Corpus Christi en Sevilla" is one of the most popular elements of Iberia; not only do pianists play it on its own, but it has enjoyed orchestral transcriptions by Enrique Fernández Arbós and Leopold Stokowski, and even a band arrangement by Lucien Caillet. Albéniz called the city of Seville a "rainbow of all the human joys," but the march tune he employs here is actually from Burgos, a place that was perhaps a rainbow of more spiritual joys. For Albéniz is depicting the progress of a religious parade, heard first in the distance with the piano-imitating drumbeats gradually coming closer. The excitement builds, bells peal in the high and low registers of the keyboard, but the pious revelers come to their senses for the hymn "Tantum ergo." This forms the movement's central section, a soaring, quiet melody with restless Spanish counter-rhythms. The festive music returns, but the piece ends with a long, serene coda.

© All Music Guide

Iberia Suite for piano, B.47, Book 2

On its second leg, Albéniz's musical ground tour of Spain, the four-suite Iberia, makes stops in Ronda, Almería, and Triana, a suburb of Seville.

"Rondeña" is a charming piece that begins with an extended passage of purely rhythmic rather than melodic interest; this draws from the guajiras form, a series of curt, two-bar phrases alternating between 3/4 and 6/8 meter. At length, a particularly happy little tune does emerge, but barely is it established when Albéniz relinquishes it for a more melancholy malagueña section, which dominates the piece. This builds almost to a state of rapture, but eases off for a return of the opening material, whereupon Albéniz begins to overlap all the piece's melodic and rhythmic elements, then dissolves them in a nocturnal final section capped by a fast, tinkling little coda. The opening rhythm of "Almería" sounds like a continuation of "Rondeña," but now the mood is dreamier and steamier. The opening rhythm is a tarantas with an omnipresent pedal note of G. The music restlessly slips through distant harmonies, slowly and rhapsodically. Ultimately, the music becomes a very free and passionate jota, a characteristic dance of the Almería region; but, as usual in this series, it concludes with an extended, slow, quiet section. "Triana" evokes a boisterous, culturally rich suburb of Seville with the lively sevillanas rhythm contending with a pasodoble, the music to which bullfighters march into the ring. Although this piece is as busy and note-splattered as anything in Granados' virtuosic Goyescas, Albéniz keeps the fiesta well under control with such markings as (in English translation) tranquilly, gracious and tender, and deeply sonorous but not forte. Even so, Albéniz can't resist ending with an exuberant gesture.

© All Music Guide

Suite Iberia (trans. orchestra by Arbós)

As a piano series in four books, this suite is Albéniz's outstanding accomplishment, featuring complex playing techniques, bright modern harmonies, and imitations of instruments such as the guitar and castanets. In this transcription of five of the 12 "impressions" for orchestra by E. Fernández Arbós, many fascinating timbral elements are added to and amplified from the piano score.

"Evocación" (Evocation, 1906) opens with a bright Spanish chord consisting of a guitar-like string pizzicato, timbales, triangle, and high winds. Transposed to the key of A minor from the original A flat minor (intonation and certain figures are considerably easier for the orchestra in A minor), a plaintive English horn delivers the sad, haunting triple meter melody before it is passed on to other woodwind instruments. The expansive high strings are supported by pulsing horns and rich arpeggios which completely realizes something at which the pianist can only hint. Arbós adds new Debussy-inspired textures with tremolo strings and fast runs.

"La Fête Dieu à Séville" ("El Corpus en Sevilla"/Corpus Christi in Seville, 1906) is a celebratory minor-key tune that builds to fiery emotion. Arbós brilliantly accomplishes the difficult transfer of the unique piano figures to the orchestra (for example, quick two-hand alterations are reinterpreted by repeated pedal point on the open A string, or by tremolos in the violins). This makes for some exciting, brightly sparkling impressionist textures. Calmer and slower English horn and flute melodies are then accompanied by softly undulating muted Debussyian string timbres. The final Vivo section re-ignites the energy in triple meter. The ending has bell-like sounds bringing back a religious aspect following the celebration.

"Triana" (1906) is a dance with a graceful, spirited, lilting rhythm with daring harmonic modulations and combinations which calls for an expanded percussion section including timbales, triangle, Basque drum (Pandereta), cymbals, small tambour, tubular bells, and celesta, and like the typical Debussy orchestra, calls for two harps and an expanded wind section.

"El Puerto" (The Port, 1906), in a joyous 6/8 meter, contrasts brusque punctuations with a happy folk dance melody and with "subtle and caressing" sighing figures. Arbós adds many glissandi, quick trills and turns, and mid-range wind and brass sustains (replacing some of the sustaining pedal and resonance capabilities of the piano).

"El Albaicín" (1907), the name of a gypsy quarter in Granada, unfolds in a lively angular dance rhythm with a melancholy sweetness and bold harmonies.

© All Music Guide