Apart from a short time at the New Music School in London, d'Albert was a self-taught musician influenced by Liszt, Brahms and Hanslick. As a performer, his renditions of the works of Beethoven, Bach, Liszt and Brahms were considered perfect. His piano compositions are mainly character pieces, but he was most successful as an operatic composer. He wrote both comic and tragic operas, but the works suffer from poorly-written texts and are not often performed today. Although he spent most of his time in Britian, d'Albert considered himself a German composer. ~ Lynn Vought, All Music Guide