Album DescriptionIsaac Albéniz was a man of contrasts: self-disciplinary and reckless, miserly and extravagant, cerebral and sentimental. With Iberia, he attempted to capture the natural flow of ideas in a rational pattern as the romanticist and classicist in him engaged in a never-ending struggle. The true quality of this music lies in the originality with which Albéniz was able to blend varied elements--Andalusian flamenco and Parisian impressionism--and the remarkable power of imagination he demonstrated in the process. A virtuoso on par with Lazar Berman or Louis Lortie, Yoram Ish-Hurwitz is a Dutch pianist of Israeli origin. In 1988 he won the second prize at the Eduard Flipse Piano Competition in Rotterdam. Three years later, he was awarded the Jacques Vonk Prize by a unanimous international jury. Since then he has frequently performed in the Netherlands and is regular guest soloist with many orchestras. Since 2003, Ish-Hurwitz has been a Steinway artist. His discography includes works by Schubert, Chopin, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, and the complete "Années de Pèlerinage" by Franz Liszt. One of the Liszt CDs reached the Top 10 in the classical charts, and kept the #1 position for several weeks.