Chamber Concerto No.1 for Violin, Piano, and String Orchestra Op.28a (1989, rev. 2022) c.18’00”

in one movement

First performed on Oct. 7th, 2022 at the Astana Concert Hall, Astana, Kazakhstan, by Aiman Mussakhajayeva, violin and Lowell Liebermann, piano, with the Kazakh State Symphony conducted by Tigran Shiganyan.

ABOUT

The Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet Op. 28 was composed in 1989 as the result of a commission from the Spoleto Festival Chamber Music Series. Following a brilliant performance of Chausson's Concert by Joshua Bell and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Chamber Music Director Scott Nickrenz had the idea of commissioning a work for the same combination to be performed by Bell and Thibaudet at the following Spoleto Festival. The one-movement Concerto is dedicated to Scott Nickrenz and received its first performance at the 1989 Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, with the Ridge Quartet joining Bell and Thibaudet.

The Concerto is in one arc-form movement whos central section is an extended Passacaglia.  The string quartet, as in the Chausson Concert, functions as the orchestra would in a standard concerto, leaving the prominent parts for the violin and piano soloists. The composer later made this version, expanding the String Quartet to String Orchestra.

REVIEWS

“…Yet it was the following Chamber Concerto for violin, piano and abbreviated orchestra which was absolutely mesmerizing. Part of it was the exotic colors, the undulating quivers and quasi-Eastern scale passages. Ms. Mussakhajayeva was quite brilliant here. But the awards had to go to the composer on piano. Mr. Liebermann has never appeared in Carnegie Hall as soloist which is a shame. Though his sensitivity, his balance, his tasteful yet rarely aggressive lines had the beauty of a Gothic edifice.” ——— Harry Rolnick, ConcertoNet.com

RECORDINGS