Walter Aaron Clark's detailed and accurate account (the first in English) of one of the most intriguing figures of the Romantic period is now available in paperback. Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909), a renowned concert pianist, created a national style of Spanish piano music and also fostered the growth in Spain of the concerto, orchestral music, and opera.

His career was to become the stuff of legend: a touring child prodigy who supposedly stowed away on a steamer to the New World, he later studie...