Calle Maestro Arbós

Enrique Fernández Arbós was born in Madrid in 1863. He trained as a violinist in Madrid, Brussels and Berlin, and served as concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony before returning to Spain. In 1904 he took over the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, which he led for nearly thirty-five years. As a conductor he brought to Spain scores never played here: in 1932 he conducted the country’s first performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. From his work as an orchestrator remains his version of five pieces from Albéniz’s Iberia, his friend from youth, still performed in concert. He died in 1939, and in 1941 Madrid gave his name to this street in Legazpi, which runs between Legazpi square and the avenida del Manzanares. The sign calls him Maestro Arbós, by the title the musical world of his time knew him by.