Concerto for Orchestra

Liebermann's offering to the genre of concerti for orchestra was written for and premiered by the Toledo Symphony in 2002. "Listening to the work develop, one often felt as if some spectacular clash of wills was unfolding across the stage. Melodies - sometimes long, more often shattered into agitated fragments - broke across each other in clashing rhythms that reminded this listener of the Greek Furies." --Steven Cornelius, The Toledo Blade "[T]his is an expertly crafted virtuoso essay that gives everyone a moment to shine at some point, and it’s a tribute to Liebermann’s technique that even the licks for the odder instruments make sense in their context." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com The Concerto for Orchestra is also included in an all-Liebermann recording by BBC Symphony Orchestra, Grant Llewellyn, conducting, on the Albany label.

Many people have a hard time grasping the concept of a ?Concerto? for orchestra, and I have been asked many times since I started working on the piece what the difference was between a Concerto for Orchestra and a Symphony. Of course, usually a Concerto features a solo instrumentalist with orchestra, as opposed to a Symphony, which is usually without soloist. In writing a Concerto without soloist, my aim was to stress the virtuosity of the orchestra, not only by featuring solo players within the orchestra, but especially by featuring the virtuosity of the orchestra as an ensemble. In fact the ensemble difficulties of the work, particularly in the first movement, are such that I was almost tempted to call the piece ?Concerto for Conductor & Orchestra.? The work opens with a slow introduction that outlines an octotonic (8-note) scale from which much of the material of the concerto is built. Motivic fragments are also introduced that are expanded later in the work. The body of the first movement is an expanded A-B-A form: a relentless Vivace with many meter changes and tricky cross-rhythms flanks a contrasting lyric section. An abrupt pause leads the slow movement, a sectional Adagio that builds on motivic fragments heard earlier. This leads directly into the final movement, an Allegro which juxtaposes a fanfare-like motive in the horns with a chorale theme built on the octotonic scale that is varied in a Passacaglia-like fashion and fugal sections built previous material.

Liebermann's offering to the genre of concerti for orchestra was written for and premiered by the Toledo Symphony in 2002. "Listening to the work develop, one often felt as if some spectacular clash of wills was unfolding across the stage. Melodies - sometimes long, more often shattered into agitated fragments - broke across each other in clashing rhythms that reminded this listener of the Greek Furies." --Steven Cornelius, The Toledo Blade "[T]his is an expertly crafted virtuoso essay that gives everyone a moment to shine at some point, and it’s a tribute to Liebermann’s technique that even the licks for the odder instruments make sense in their context." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Liebermann's offering to the genre of concerti for orchestra was written for and premiered by the Toledo Symphony in 2002. "Listening to the work develop, one often felt as if some spectacular clash of wills was unfolding across the stage. Melodies - sometimes long, more often shattered into agitated fragments - broke across each other in clashing rhythms that reminded this listener of the Greek Furies." --Steven Cornelius, The Toledo Blade "[T]his is an expertly crafted virtuoso essay that gives everyone a moment to shine at some point, and it’s a tribute to Liebermann’s technique that even the licks for the odder instruments make sense in their context." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com The Concerto for Orchestra is also included in an all-Liebermann recording by BBC Symphony Orchestra, Grant Llewellyn, conducting, on the Albany label.