Editorial de Música BOILEAU - Since 1913

LARROCHA, Alicia de

Barcelona 1923 - Barcelona 2009

Alicia de Larrocha y de la Calle was a Catalan pianist, considered one of the best of her generation. Born in 1923 in the city of Barcelona, ​​she began her musical studies at the age of three, offering her first concert at six and participating at eleven, for the first time, at an official concert with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. From 1939 he began to offer concerts with different European orchestras and accompanying top-level performers.

Larrocha was a disciple of the pedagogue and pianist Frank Marshall, follower of the prestigious Marshall Academy founded by Enric Granados. In the center, from which he ended up assuming the direction, he met the prestigious pianists Anton Rubinstein, Emil von Sauer or Alfred Cortot.

From 1954, the year he debuted in the United States of America, he began to promote his international recognition for his impeccable piano technique. His career accelerated from the 60s, to reach about 120 concerts annually around the world, either alone or accompanied by orchestra, in addition to making three annual tours of different cities in the United States.

Among the large number of awards received, the Unesco Prize (1995), two Ondas prizes (1992 and 2000), the Ciutat de Barcelona Prize, the Medal d'Or of the City of Barcelona (1980), the Medal of Or of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1983), four Grammy Awards (1974 by Albéniz: Iberia, 1975, 1988, 1991), three Edison Awards (1968, 1978, 1989), two Grand Prix du Disque (1960, 1974), two Record of the Year of London (1971, 1974), a Deutsche Schallplattenpreis prize (1979), National Music Prize of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2004) and the Franz Liszt Prize of Budapest (1980). Dr. Honoris Causa was also invested in several higher education centers in the United States and in Catalonia.

Married with the also pianist Juan Torra and mother of two children, she remained active until an advanced age, since she undertook a tour in the year 2000 by South American countries. He also offered a recital in Miami in 2001 and participated in several performances in 2002, in such emblematic places as the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona and the Carnegie Hall in New York.

He died on September 25, 2009 at the Quirón Clinic in Barcelona, ​​at the age of eighty-six. As a relevant personality for having received the highest distinction in the country, on Sunday the 27th, from ten in the morning to six in the afternoon, the burning chapel was installed in the Saló de Sant Jordi of the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya for those who would like to say goodbye to the famous concert performer