Marta San Miguel's biography captures Enrique Granados's tragic death and artistic legacy

Marta San Miguel's new biography 'Última escala' recounts the life and death of Spanish composer and pianist Enrique Granados, who died at age 48 on March 24, 1916, when a German submarine torpedoed his ship in the English Channel. Granados and his wife, who could not swim, perished together. The book opens with this tragedy, then traces Granados's childhood, his obsessive attention to everyday sounds, his struggles playing in cafes, his transformative stay in Paris, his impoverished Madrid adventure where he discovered Goya's paintings at the Prado, and his founding of the Academia Granados. It highlights his triumph in New York with the opera 'Goyescas' at the Metropolitan and a White House recital for President Woodrow Wilson. San Miguel interweaves her own research process, including visits to specific addresses in Barcelona and examination of Granados's personal objects like his glasses and medals. The biography also notes curious details: Granados's son Enrique Granados Gal wrote a book on swimming, and his grandson Enrique Granados Aumacellas was an Olympic swimmer in Helsinki 1952. Granados, often called the Spanish Grieg, aimed to build Spanish music on folk song, though he rejected narrow nationalism, stating he wanted to express what he felt whether Andalusian or Chinese. The book is published by Libros del Asteroide.