lowell liebermann

[BoliverAllmon]

I was told this was a great composer. His gargoyles and Piano concerto 2 were phenomenal. I haven't listened to anything of his yet, but I am really curious what you guys think.

boliver

[BoliverAllmon]

has anyone at least listened to him? every heard his stuff? I was told he is becoming quite popular in the classical world.

boliver

[viking]

I posted something about Liebermann's Rhapsody Paganini a while ago.  I'm not sure if you read it or anything, but im just telling you i've heard of him.  Apparently his piano concerto no.2 is technically among the toughest concertos ever written, so says my piano teacher who is quite knowledgeable.  And I do recall someone winning my provinces grand awards for piano last year played liebermann's gargoyles for piano.  Havent listened to any of his stuff, but apparently its good.  Whatever, that probably wasnt much help.
SAM

[BoliverAllmon]

I posted something about Liebermann's Rhapsody Paganini a while ago.  I'm not sure if you read it or anything, but im just telling you i've heard of him.  Apparently his piano concerto no.2 is technically among the toughest concertos ever written, so says my piano teacher who is quite knowledgeable.  And I do recall someone winning my provinces grand awards for piano last year played liebermann's gargoyles for piano.  Havent listened to any of his stuff, but apparently its good.  Whatever, that probably wasnt much help.
SAM

that post at least reinforces the idea that I should check his music out.

[amanfang]

I LOVE his music!!!  I played one of his nocturnes (No. 4, Op. 38) on my last recital.  I had a friend play his second concerto too.  David Korevaar is working on recording all Liebermann's solo piano works.  Vol. 1 and 2 are out and available from Amazon. Stephen Hough has recorded two of the concertos.  Currently I am working on one of his piano duos.  It actually hasn't been published yet, but he was commissioned to write it for the 2001 Dranoff Two Piano Competition.  So the Presser web-site said "available from composer" so I emailed him and he sent it to me.  I definitely recommend his music.  Check out Amazon for recordings, and check out his website to see his works.

[Skeptopotamus]

Bleh.  I'm aware that on PF just about everyone likes Liebermann but I really dislike him.  I think his music is kind of neo-romantic sappy-trashy.  To me Liebermann is kind of like a bad Scriabin rip-off who writes in a more modern style.  It's overtly emotional and kinda makes me wanna puke at some points.  Gargoyles is nice though, I'll give him that.

[Nightscape]

I find Liebermann's music to be quite enjoyable.... yes he is emotional, but he is far less "romantic" than some composers, like Chopin and Liszt.  Actually Neo-Romanticism, while at first regarded as an anachronism, is rapidly gaining the respect of professional musicians.

It makes sense too.... since many composers are always looking to be 'different' and to be unique, and since dissonance and abstraction in music have already been taken to thier furthest extremes, the only way to go to write music that is less dissonant and less abstract - that is, if you still want to write music that uses the acoustical properties of sound.

I suppose the only way to make music more abstract, would be to change the definition of the word "music", to create a "composition" that has aboslutely nothing to do with sound.  For example, you could paint a picture, and that would be your music composition.  Not the sound of you painting of course, but the actual painting would be the "composition".

[Skeptopotamus]

I'm not trashin neo-romanticism; I love Danielpour and Finnissy, but I think Liebermann's music does reach expressionist and emotional extremes that surpass even Chopin or Liszt.  Also the fact that almost all of the stuff he writes for solo piano is like 1 minute long is kind of off-putting.

[amanfang]

I'm not sure what pieces you're talking about that are like one minute long aside from his pieces from the Album for the Young.  As for his emotional extremes, I rather like his strong climaxes, and wouldn't necessarily say that they surpass Chopin and Liszt, but are simply different.

[BoliverAllmon]

so does anyone have a recording I could listen to?

[BoliverAllmon]

so I listened to his gargoyles and Nocturne. I really enjoy the nocturne. Has anyone heard or played his album for the young? what were your thoughts on it?