Variations on a Theme of Schubert for piano solo Op.100 (2007) c.10'00"

Commissioned by Louis K. Meisel for Nadajda Vlaeva

First performed on November 10th, 2009 at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City by Nadejda Vlaeva

ABOUT

The Variations of a Theme of Schubert were commissioned by Louis K. Meisel for pianist Nadejda Vlaeva who gave the first performance of the work at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City on December 10th, 2009.

The piece had a somewhat complicated genesis:  I originally conceived it as a solo piano piece, sketching out the arrangement of the theme and the first variation without having a commission for the piece. Out of necessity I set the sketches aside to work on commissioned pieces, and they lay fallow for a number of years, until a commission for a piece for wind band prompted me to adapt the long-neglected sketches for that ensemble, where the completed work appeared as my Op.92. I had always felt though, that the material’s “true” nature was as a solo piano piece, so when Lou Meisel asked me to write something for Nadejda, I explained that I would like to do a reworking for solo piano of the Schubert Variations, and he agreed.

The theme for the variations is Schubert’s setting of Goethe’s poem “Heidenröslein.” The theme is presented in a fairly faithful, unelaborated arrangement, followed by ten variations which use motivic material from the Schubert song. From the very first variation, a bitonal etude which combines the right hand playing filigree figuration against the left hand’s melody and accompaniment, the variations stray widely from the theme in terms of harmonic and stylistic content.  Etude-like variations alternate with more lyrical, slow variations and culminate in a march-like variation (Var. XIII,) a music box evocation (Var. IX,) and the final finger-twisting fugal variation which briefly returns to the unadulterated original theme before ending in a virtuoso flourish.

RECORDINGS

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REVIEWS

“Some of Liebermann’s freshest, wittiest and most unpredictable writing occurs in the ‘Schubert’ Variations, a piece originally for concert band and brilliantly reworked for 10 busy fingers. The composer takes Schubert’s rather insipid setting of Goethe’s ‘Heidenröslein’ on a stylistic joyride that features rapid bitonal embroidering, statuesque chords supported by left-hand octaves, Busoni-like pontification and discontinuous cut-ups.” Gramophone

“The Schubert Variations (after Goethe’s ‘Heidenröslein’) combine virtuosity and historical references in a wonderfully imaginative and at times bizarre way, incorporating not just the Schubert melody but also echoes of the sombre “Dies Irae” cant and the motive "‘BACH’.
Music & Vision

“Liebermann’s excellent set of variations…brought Schubert’s “Heidenröslein” brilliantly and expressively into the twenty-first century.”
New York Concert Review