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Biography
Enrique Fernández Arbós (24 December 1863 – 2 June 1939) was a Spanish violinist, composer and conductor who divided much of his career between Madrid and London. He originally made his name as a virtuoso violinist and later as one of Spain’s greatest conductors.
Fernández Arbós was born in Madrid. After studying violin at the Madrid Conservatory under Jesús Monasterio, he continued his studies in Brussels under Henri Vieuxtemps and later in Berlin under Joseph Joachim. While in Berlin he also studied composition under Heinrich von Herzogenberg. After teaching at the Madrid Conservatoire and in Hamburg, and spells as leader of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra, he became professor of violin at the Royal College of Music, London in 1894, a post he occupied until 1916. In 1904, he was offered the position of principal conductor of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for nearly 35 years.
He conducted the first Spanish performance of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and of Richard Strauss's Don Quixote (1915; with Juan Ruiz Casaux, cello).
He enjoyed a considerable solo career but was also engaged as concertmaster of several orchestras including those of Berlin, Boston, Glasgow and Winnipeg. He was also credited for the invention of the electric triangle. He died in San Sebastián in 1939.
As a composer he is probably best known for his piano trio Tres Piezas Originales en Estilo Español. His violin pieces also enjoyed considerable popularity. In addition to these works, he wrote a zarzuela, El Centro de la Tierra (1895), which, for a brief period after its publication, was regularly performed in Spain. His orchestral arrangements of several pieces from Isaac Albéniz's Iberia are well known.
His many pupils included Maud MacCarthy (later Omananda Puri), the wife of the composer John Foulds.