Joaquim

Joaquim Malats Miarons

Barcelona , 5 March 1982
Barcelona , 22 October 1912

Composer and Performer

Pianist and composer

He was considered one of the greatest pianists of his time and one of the greatest exponent of the Catalan piano school, together with Vidiella, Albéniz, Granados and Viñes. He studied, among others, with Joan Baptista Pujol and Robert Goberna at the Escola Municipal de Música of Barcelona. Bright student, he studied in Paris with Charles de Bériot and won the first prize at the Conservatoire (1893). In the Parisian capital, he began his concert career, while attending classes of harmony and composition with Benjamin Godard. In those years he composed most of his output, characterized by picturesque aesthetics, Andalusian exoticism and the romantic piano salon music. In 1903 he won the Diémer Prize at the Conservatoire in Paris, which was the starting point of his international career. He specialized in the great composers of Classicism and German Romanticism, as well as music by Grieg and Debussy and his friend Saint-Saëns. He was Albénizi's favorite pianist. According to the critics of his time, his Iberia performances was second to none.