On this unique and diverse recording, three contemporary concertante works for piccolo and orchestra are coupled with an arrangement of Mozart’s Oboe Quartet with the solo wind part exchanged for its treble cousin. Liebermann (b.1961) has acknowledged the music of Dmitri Shostakovich as a consistent inspiration through his career, and especially its latter stages after he withdrew from writing in a toughly modernist idiom. That influence may be appreciated throughout the piercing, lyrical stretches of the Piccolo Concerto composed in 1996, and in its economical orchestration for a Classical-sized orchestra plus an important part for harp. If Vivaldi constitutes your sole engagement so far with the piccolo as a solo instrument, Liebermann’s concerto is a perfect place to start and broaden your appreciation for the instrument as more than the piping, variously eerie or shrill capstone to works by Beethoven, Mahler and indeed Shostakovich.
Works:
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Cavicchi: As night progresses
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Galante: Gli Usignoli dell' Imperatore
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Liebermann, L: Piccolo Concerto, Op. 50
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Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F major, K370