Not many pianists have the technical ability and musicality required to perform Isaac Albéniz's Iberia, one of the pinnacles of universal piano art. The Madrid-born Luis Fernando Pérez, who became a pianist with Dmitri Bashkirov at the Escuela Reina Sofía and also worked intensively with Alicia de Larrocha, is one of them. He is the author of a magnificent edition of Iberia which the School commissioned from him and which is available to everyone. He is also the author of a recording that is at the forefront of international Iberia recordings. As well as Albéniz, Luis Fernando Pérez is a consummate interpreter of the great repertoire.

The twelve impressions that make up the four Iberia notebooks are exceptional not only for their luminosity and evocative character, but also for their definition of a new pianism - and extremely difficult for the performer - in which, in the manner of flamenco, the melodic and, above all, harmonic ornamentation has an exuberant presence and ends up attaining a structural value.  The Albaicín, an impression of the popular neighbourhood of Granada, is the first piece in the third Iberia notebook and is also the subject of this master class given by Luis Fernando Pérez to Izem Gürer, a student of Professor Bashkirov in the School's Banco Santander Foundation Piano Chair. The ease with which this young Turkish pianist assimilates the explanations is proof that music knows no borders and that, despite all its idiomaticism and Spanish accent, Iberia has the universality of masterpieces and is therefore accessible to great pianists of all origins.