Nin: Cadena de valses

Joaquín Nin y Castellanos (1878-1949) is generally considered a leading Spanish composer, pianist and musicologist, though he was born and died in Havana, Cuba and spent much of his life in Paris. Manifesting pianistic gifts even as a child, Nin was taken to Spain and studied piano in Barcelona before moving to Paris, where he was a piano pupil of Moritz Moszkowski. Most in demand as a performer in the 1920s and 1930s, it was only under the threat of World War II that, in 1939, Nin finally left France and returned to Cuba. Nin was a colourful and controversial character, a serial womanizer whose aristocratic bearing brought him an entrée to high society. He was also the father of two creative artists no less remarkable than himself: his daughter Anaïs Nin (1903-77), the writer most famous for her journals and erotica, and his second son, the composer Joaquín Nin-Culmell (1908-2004). As a pianist, Nin was a noted interpreter of the keyboard works of J.S. Bach as well as Spanish music ancient and modern. His original compositions were influenced by such Baroque-period works, French Impressionism and the more recent strain of Spanish nationalist music, drawing upon folk-music, that had been popularized by Albéniz, Granados and Falla. His piano writing gives a vivid idea of his personal playing style: commanding, impeccably crafted and invariably attractive, witty and charming, sometimes creating an atmosphere, sometimes perhaps telling a story.