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Violinist, conductor, and composer Enrique Fernández Arbós was a major figure in late 19th and early 20th century musical life, both within and beyond Spain. Appearing as far afield as the U.S., he was also an important educator.

Fernández Arbós was born in Madrid on December 24, 1863. He grew up in Ferrol, in the Galicia region, which was his mother's hometown. Fernández Arbós showed talent early on the violin and enrolled at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid for studies with Jesús Monasterio. He won the school's first prize in 1876 and was supported in a subsequent move to Brussels by the Infanta Isabel de Bourbon. There, he studied violin with Henri Vieuxtemps and also took composition lessons from Hubert Kufferath and others. Composer Isaac Albéniz was his classmate. Fernández Arbós went on to Berlin, where he rounded out his top-flight violin education with Joseph Joachim and took chamber music classes from that master as well. He also studied composition with Heinrich von Herzogenberg. Fernández Arbós quickly landed a plum position as concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1882. He also toured France, Spain, Britain, and the U.S.

Later in the 1880s, he returned to Spain, performing as a soloist and forming a Society for Chamber Music and a variety of chamber groups, including an Arbós Quartet; when Albéniz performed with that group, it was known as the Albéniz Quintet. Much of his chamber music, including the Tres Piezas en estilo español for piano trio, Op. 1, was written during this period. In 1894, Fernández Arbós became professor of violin and viola at the Royal College of Music in London. He remained in that position until 1915. He continued to perform as a soloist, and in 1903, he became concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He composed a zarzuela (Spanish light opera), El centro de la tierra. Fernández Arbós was also active increasingly often as a conductor, and in 1905, he became the principal conductor of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. With that group, he toured Spain, Europe, and the U.S., becoming quite famous internationally; he was the subject of several caricatures. Fernández Arbós conducted the Spanish premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in 1932. He remained at the helm in Madrid until 1936, stepping down as a result of the Spanish Civil War. Fernández Arbós died in San Sebastián, Spain, on June 2, 1939. His compositions were forgotten for several decades, but new recordings of some of them began to appear in the 21st century; the Tres Piezas en estilo español were performed by the Hermitage Trio on its 2023 release Spanish Impressions. By that time, about a dozen recordings of Fernández Arbós' work were available. ~ James Manheim