LIEBERMANN: Orchestral and Vocal Works

Neuhold, Gunter;
Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra;
Darmstadt Concert Choir;
Grieder, Alfons;
Nabatov, Simon;
North German Radio Big Band;
Tovey, Rachael

8.555884

‘Why should it not be permissible to arrange, in the form of the Italian concerto grosso, in which a group of soloists is set against a full orchestra, a work that contrasts and combines jazz soloists and a symphony orchestra?’ Rolf Liebermann asked himself, when, in a commission for South West Radio Baden-Baden, he wrote his work for the radio symphony orchestra and Kurt Edelhagen’s jazz ensemble, first performed on 17th October 1954 at Donaueschingen. ‘My concerto must be an attempt to include an element of actual contemporary dance in art music’ - the problem of how to be able to combine the two musical groups was amusingly solved by Liebermann: ‘The jazz orchestra will be used as the equivalent of the preclassical concertino, while the symphony orchestra takes on the function of accompanying and providing intervening episodes’. The concerto is in eight movements, played in alternation by the orchestra and the jazz band, brought together by the use of a twelve-note row. The string tremolo and short brass motifs in the Introduction provide an almost impressionistic atmosphere — this is the domain of a symphony orchestra, and the other ‘symphonic’ parts, Scherzo I, Scherzo II and Interludium, offer characteristic classical and romantic movements. In the jazz movements there are three dances. Jump is in swing rhythm; the sensuous mood of a Blues appears, framed by the two Scherzos, as the slow movement of the concerto. Boogie-Woogie is a homage to a style that was introduced in the first decades of the twentieth century from the coloured musicians of Chicago. In the Mambo finally both worlds come together in an exciting conclusion.

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

09-12-2002

747313588428