Andrés Isasi

Andrés Isasi y Linares, Marqués de Barambio (18 October 1890 – 6 April 1940) was a Spanish composer of Basque origin. He was born in Bilbao and died at his home in Algorta.

Isasi’s parents died early, and he lived with his grandfather, also named Andrés Isasi. He studied piano and composition in Bilbao with Miguel Unceta. At the age of eighteen his first works were performed successfully, including the String Quartet No. 0 (later catalogued as Op. 83), showing clear influence of Edvard Grieg and, to a lesser extent, Antonín Dvořák.

In 1909 he moved to Berlin, studying with the pianist Karl Kempff and the composer Engelbert Humperdinck. The move led him to renounce his earlier music: he destroyed most of it and restarted his opus numbering, so some surviving early works later received posthumous numbers.

Having written a song collection to poems by Heinrich Heine (Op. 16), a String Quartet No. 1 (Op. 11), and Symphony No. 1 (Op. 10), he presented his first symphonic poem, “Zharufa,” in 1913. The following year it won second prize at an international competition organized by the Malmö Conservatory. For a time the symphonic poem became central to his output, with works including “Amor dormido,” “Das Orakel,” “Die Sünde,” and “Ihr Bild.”

During World War I he returned to Algorta and devoted himself to composing. He wrote a Violin Sonata in 1917 and, in 1920–1921, concentrated on string quartets, producing his last four completed quartets (Nos. 2–5). In the 1920s he also composed two piano sonatas (Opp. 28 and 34) and many piano pieces.

His music was poorly received by local audiences, considered too bold for its time and too German in character. In the following decade his works were performed in Madrid and other major Spanish cities, but were often received more favorably abroad. His a cappella choral work “Angelus” achieved major success in Budapest in 1930, as did his Symphony No. 2 (Op. 23) in 1931. He also composed a Mass in F major (Op. 42) in 1930; in the 1930s he wrote a third sonata (Op. 52) and six piano sonatinas, while songs (Lieder) became especially important, gathered into seven collections (Opp. 47–50 and 57–59). He also conceived a filmed cardboard-theatre piece, “Pastorela: Jinete de Abril” (Op. 51), for which only the first three numbers of the music survive.

Isasi’s music followed the Central European tradition; although he sometimes used Basque motifs, he was not considered a nationalist composer. Financially independent, he was able to compose despite limited public interest and sought to support artistic development in the Basque Country. His secluded life and Spain’s political turmoil contributed to his neglect, and by the time of his death he was largely forgotten.

Performances of his music remained rare after 1940, though milestones included the first performance of his String Quartet No. 5 (Op. 32), dedicated to the memory of Johannes Brahms, in Bilbao on 2 December 1942, and performances of Symphony No. 2 conducted by Jesús Arámbarri in Bilbao in 1944; Arámbarri later presented its scherzo in a Basque-music concert in Madrid in 1952. A revival began in the late 20th century with increasing recordings, including complete recordings of the surviving string quartets by the ensemble later known as the Isasi Quartet.

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