Originally Eugene Francis Charles, Albert was born at 9 Newton Street in Glasgow, but spent his boyhood in Newcastle. He was a precociously gifted child and after being taught by his father, C.L.N. D'Albert, a musician and dancing master, he went as a Newcastle scholar to the National Training School (later the Royal College of Music) in London, where he studied under Stainer and Sullivan among others.
Albert had success as a pianist and composer, producing his first piano concerto in 1884, and later studied under Liszt in Vienna. In 1907, he succeeded Joachim as director of the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. Albert gave recitals in Newcastle in April 1896 and in the autumn of 1912; at the latter he played his own transcription of Bach's Organ Passacaglia. During World War I Albert repudiated his British birth, declaring himself to be entirely German. Of his twenty operas, only Tiefland (1903) had any real success. The remainder of his large output has fallen into neglect.