Steinway & Sons to Release PERSONAL DEMONS, The Debut Solo-Piano Album From Composer / Pianist Lowell Liebermann

On February 5th 2021, Steinway & Sons will releases the debut solo-piano album from composer / pianist Lowell Liebermann, released in conjunction with his 60th birthday. The two-disc album, Personal Demons, is an immaculately curated program of works that have inspired and shaped Liebermann's musical career - "the ones I wish I wrote," as he frames it in his own liner notes to the album - framed by three of Liebermann's own pieces that hold special significance for him.

This recording offers a first opportunity for many to hear how Liebermann interprets his own keyboard compositions, such as Gargoyles, which premiered in 1989 and more than 30 years later remains Liebermann's most-performed piano work; Apparitions, which borrows its title from Liszt and Walt Whitman but musically draws more inspiration from Brahms; and Nocturne No. 10, dedicated to the memory of Gian Carlo Menotti and described by Liebermann as the most personal of his 11 Nocturnes.

Three of the four works by other composers selected for this album - the titular "personal demons" that have haunted and preoccupied Liebermann for most of his career - happen to be adaptations of pre-existing themes. Schubert's setting of a theme from his close friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner's String Quartet; Liszt's solo piano transcription of his own Totentanz, which incorporates the iconic Dies irae theme; Busoni's expansive reworking of J.S. Bach's final fugue - Liebermann delights and takes inspiration from all. Liebermann also includes a set of eight Preludes by Czech composer Miloslav Kabeláč, whose music remains nearly unknown in the U.S. and which Liebermann admires for their "jewel-like clarity."

Liebermann's thoughtful liner notes for the album demonstrate the breadth of his musical knowledge while providing keen insight into both his own works and those of other composers. His occasional interjections pointing out discrepancies between the published scores of his music and the original manuscripts, which serve as explanations for the stylistic choices he makes in his own performances, are the type of tidbit that only the composer himself could provide.

Personal Demons is a program of complex repertoire irresistibly written for piano: music that could only have been written by virtuoso composer / pianists such as Liebermann himself.

About Lowell Liebermann

Lowell Liebermann is one of America's most frequently performed and recorded living composers. He has written over one hundred thirty works in all genres, several of which have gone on to become standard repertoire for their instruments, such as his Sonata for Flute and Piano and Gargoyles for piano, each of which have been recorded over twenty times on CD.

He has been commissioned by a wide array of ensembles and instrumentalists, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Emerson Quartet and flutist Sir James Galway. His full-length ballet Frankenstein was co-commissioned by London's Royal Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet and has been released on Blu-Ray and DVD. Mr. Liebermann has written two full-length operas, both enthusiastically received at their premieres: The Picture of Dorian Gray, the first American opera commissioned and premiered by l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and Miss Lonelyhearts, after the novel by Nathanael West, commissioned by the Juilliard School to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Mr. Liebermann served as Composer-in-Residence for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for four years, a role he also pursued with the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan; the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and many other organizations. He joined the composition faculty of Mannes School of Music of the New School in 2012, where he founded the Mannes American Composers Ensemble, devoted to performing works of living American composers. He was appointed head of Mannes's Composition Department the following year.

Among his many awards are a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, awards from ASCAP and BMI and a Grammy nomination. He was the first winner of the Van Cliburn Invitational Composers Competition, and in 2014 became the inaugural recipient of the Virgil Thomson Award for vocal composition.

About the Steinway & Sons Label

The STEINWAY & SONS music label produces exceptional albums of solo piano music across all genres. The label - a division of STEINWAY & SONS, maker of the world's finest pianos - is a perfect vessel for producing the finest quality recordings by some of the most talented pianists in the world.

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