James Galway - James Galway Plays Lowell Liebermann

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Free Music Notes for James Galway Plays Lowell Liebermann

Free Music Review: Delicious New Wine in Fine Vintage Bottles
Hit: 5 Stars

The idea of a piccolo concerto might seem preposterous, until one hears the warm, rich voice the instrument assumes in Galway's hands. Simply put, never before has a piccolo sounded like this. The piccolo has always been something of an orchestral extravagance, added to a piece in much the same way that a chef garhishes the main course. What a revelation it is to hear this diminutive instrument's hidden lyricism swell to operatic proportions.

Liebermann's music itself is significant not only for its sonic beauty and often profound emotion, but for its impeccably detailed architecture, as well. Each piece grows organically and naturally from small, meaningful sounds and figures. One is never lost, even though it may not be apparent exactly why, because the elements that hold each piece securely together are subtly interwoven beneath the surface in a masterful manner that often remains elusive to an untrained ear. In a sense, Liebermann is a musicologist's dream, for the complexity of his music unfurls in astonishing, graceful layers, somewhat in the manner of a sweet yet sharp Vidalia onion.

Unhappy, cynical music critics -- most of whom are, unfortunately, bitter, failed musicians -- would be quick to dismiss the sometimes sensuous, sometimes austere lyricism of Liebermann's music as derivative. Those professional musicians among us who have had the pleasure both to hear and to perform the works of this remarkable artist know better. Liebermann's music is derivative in the same way that Beethoven is derivative of Haydn, the way Strauss is derivative of Wagner, only Liebermann draws effortlessly from the entire spectrum of Western music, to which any curious musician living in this age of recordings cannot be oblivious. There is no truly new music, and that's a good thing. Anything worth playing or hearing is a culmination of its musical heritage, which any composer is foolish to try to subjugate. All the elements of Liebermann's immediately identifiable works come together to reveal a uniquely individual musician elegantly situated along the timeline of musical history.

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