Liner Notes
Cat. No. NWCRL350
Release Date: 2010-12-15
Speculum Musicae; Peter Lieberson, Conductor; Daniel Reed, violin; Rolf Schulte, violin; Louise Shulman, viola; Paul Dunkel, flute; Stephen Taylor, oboe; Virgil Blackwell, clarinet; Fred Sherry, cello; Donald MacCourt, bassoon; Donald Palma, bass; Ursula Oppens, piano; Susan Jolles, harp; Light Fantastic Players; David Holzman, piano; Thomas James, piano; Claire Heldrich, percussion; Joseph Passaro, percussion; Daniel Shulman, Conductor
Notes by Peter Lieberson:
Concerto for Four Groups of Instruments was my first large chamber work, and, luckily, it was commissioned by Speculum Musicae, with whom I have worked extensively since, and who gave this particular work its first very fine performance. It was also my first public conducting venture, and preparing for this, I gave myself a number of challenges as I composed the work. I remember the excitement of the occasion, the realization of the piece in sound almost more than I do the composing of it.
I think that I was attempting a precision in the unfolding of musical gestures which might clarify for me the notion at form. That is, I was working from inside out, from detail to detail in various aspects of musical dimensions, pitch, rhythm, register in particular. I had very few flashes of the work's form in the beginning as happens now so often; instead I was most involved in the appreciation of the notes themselves, how they related to one another as intervals, how intervals in turn were distanced from each other in the musical space to give them meaning. From there I began to have some sense of the energy that might thread all these gestures together into a form...
After the performance of the Concerto for Four Groups, Ursula Oppens asked me to compose a work for her. I looked forward to it, but it took two years of composing other pieces before it was actually begun. At that point I had a clear intuition of the work before me, and I think I was more aware of the musical space in which the details were to take place. Accordingly there could be all kinds of patterns, relationships between ideas, recalls, and variations, rather than just an ongoing pulse that relaxes only at the conclusion.
I had long admired the music of Brahms, particularly the personal warmth and harmonic richness found in his late piano works, the Intermezzi in particular, with their clarity of form and those strikingly varied recapitulations which are as much developments in themselves. It was my own gesture towards that unity between harmonic-rhythmic development and an accommodating form that inspired my own composing...
Notes by Erik Lundborg
From Music Forever No. 2 was composed while I attended Columbia University and was performed there in May, 1972. It is scored for piano four hands and two percussionists who share vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, 12 drums, 6 cymbals and 6 wood instruments. (Temple blocks were used in this recording.) The original idea was to compose a work for a convenient ensemble of my colleagues who could spend the necessary rehearsal time to shape the piece to perfection.
Passacaglia was commissioned by Daniel Shulman for The Light Fantastic Players and was first performed at Teachers College in New York on April 8, 1974. The passacaglia ''tune" is a series of sustained notes usually heard in thickly "populated" environments. The listener should be able to pick it out after a number of hearings. The first presentation of the passacaglia is repeated during the first half of the piece and is always subjected to rhythmic augmentation and diminution. The sustained "tune," which passes from instrument to instrument should be audible, as distinguished from the context of local gestures and interruptions.
This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Liner notes are accessible via the link above.
Notes by Peter Lieberson:
Concerto for Four Groups of Instruments was my first large chamber work, and, luckily, it was commissioned by Speculum Musicae, with whom I have worked extensively since, and who gave this particular work its first very fine performance. It was also my first public conducting venture, and preparing for this, I gave myself a number of challenges as I composed the work. I remember the excitement of the occasion, the realization of the piece in sound almost more than I do the composing of it.
I think that I was attempting a precision in the unfolding of musical gestures which might clarify for me the notion at form. That is, I was working from inside out, from detail to detail in various aspects of musical dimensions, pitch, rhythm, register in particular. I had very few flashes of the work's form in the beginning as happens now so often; instead I was most involved in the appreciation of the notes themselves, how they related to one another as intervals, how intervals in turn were distanced from each other in the musical space to give them meaning. From there I began to have some sense of the energy that might thread all these gestures together into a form...
After the performance of the Concerto for Four Groups, Ursula Oppens asked me to compose a work for her. I looked forward to it, but it took two years of composing other pieces before it was actually begun. At that point I had a clear intuition of the work before me, and I think I was more aware of the musical space in which the details were to take place. Accordingly there could be all kinds of patterns, relationships between ideas, recalls, and variations, rather than just an ongoing pulse that relaxes only at the conclusion.
I had long admired the music of Brahms, particularly the personal warmth and harmonic richness found in his late piano works, the Intermezzi in particular, with their clarity of form and those strikingly varied recapitulations which are as much developments in themselves. It was my own gesture towards that unity between harmonic-rhythmic development and an accommodating form that inspired my own composing...
Notes by Erik Lundborg
From Music Forever No. 2 was composed while I attended Columbia University and was performed there in May, 1972. It is scored for piano four hands and two percussionists who share vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, 12 drums, 6 cymbals and 6 wood instruments. (Temple blocks were used in this recording.) The original idea was to compose a work for a convenient ensemble of my colleagues who could spend the necessary rehearsal time to shape the piece to perfection.
Passacaglia was commissioned by Daniel Shulman for The Light Fantastic Players and was first performed at Teachers College in New York on April 8, 1974. The passacaglia ''tune" is a series of sustained notes usually heard in thickly "populated" environments. The listener should be able to pick it out after a number of hearings. The first presentation of the passacaglia is repeated during the first half of the piece and is always subjected to rhythmic augmentation and diminution. The sustained "tune," which passes from instrument to instrument should be audible, as distinguished from the context of local gestures and interruptions.
This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Liner notes are accessible via the link above.
Music of Peter Lieberson & Erik Lundborg
| MP3/320 | $7.99 | |
| FLAC | $7.99 | |
| WAV | $7.99 | |
| CD-R | $7.99 |
A *.pdf of the notes may be accessed here free of charge.
Track Listing
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Piano Fantasy
Peter Lieberson
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Buy
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Concerto for Four Groups of Instruments
Peter Lieberson
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Buy
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Music Forever No. 2
Erik Lundborg
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Buy
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Passacaglia
Erik Lundborg
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Buy
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