Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra Op.12 (1983) c.20'00"

(3.3.3.3/4.3.3.1/timp/perc(1)/solo pno/strings)

I. Allegro moderato
II. Larghissimo
III. Allegro con fuoco

Dedicated to Kaikosru Shapurji Sorabji

First performed on October 28th, 1988 at the Drake Theater in Lake Forest, Illinois by Stephen Hough, piano with The Lake Forest Symphony conducted by Paul McRae

RECORDINGS

click on thumbnail to order

DVD and Blu-Ray

REVIEWS

“The First Concerto is an exciting and brilliantly-written tour-de-force for both soloist and orchestra, with an arresting contrast between the angular, opening figure and the eerie Nachtmusik that follows.”
Hi Fi News and Record Review

“…it fully deserved the standing ovation it received.”
Pioneer Press, Lake Forest, Illinois

“…a dark, fast thriller of a score that has the piano skittering through blaring shards of brass and strings.”
The Guardian, UK

“The piano works of American Composer Lowell Liebermann (b.1961) are significant and poetic additions to the keyboard repertoire. One of the most successful composers of his generation, Liebermann is also controversial, especially in “progressive” musical circles. His music is mostly tonal, beautiful, and - unforgivable to some critics and academics - popular and accessible…Liebermann is often categorized as a postmodern tonalist or neoromantic, but such pigeonholing can diminish the distinctive qualities and traits of such an individual composer. His works maintain a strong sense of structural and emotional balance and proportion. The ability to write beautiful, soaring, and memorable melodies attests to his great lyric affinity. Throughout his music, Liebermann makes imaginative use of a rich a varied harmonic and textural palette, and he often demands superior technical ability from his performers. Liebermann’s works for piano are written with a masterly command of idiomatic keyboard writing. He is a formidable pianist who understands (and exploits) the coloristic and virtuoso possibilities of the instrument…Liebermann’s First Piano Concerto, Op.12 (1983), is an extremely successful work and a remarkable acheivement for a twenty-two-year-old composer. Liebermann’s grasp of bravura keyboard writing permeates this showpiece, in which brilliant technical demands mix with varieties of touch and coloristic effects…a technical tour de force.”
William T. Spiller, Notes