Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 74 (2001)
Chamber concerto No. 1 for Violin, Piano, and String Orchestra, Op. 28A (1989/2022)
Chamber concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra Op. 28B (2006/2022)
Air for Violin and String Orchestra, Op. 118 (2011)
Aiman Mussakhajayeva (violin)
Lowell Liebermann (piano)
Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra/Tigran Shiganyan
rec. 2022, Astana, Kazakhstan
Blue Griffin BGR645 [64]

These are unsurprisingly premiere recordings of the composer Lowell Liebermann’s works for violin and orchestra. There have been other CDs of other works: review review. He has been fortunate in finding his way the door of Kazakh violinist Aiman Mussakhajayeva who plays a fructiferous, full-lipped sounding 1732 Stradivarius. The composer – lending the project a creator’s imprimatur – plays the piano for the second piece.

The Concerto for violin and full orchestra has now come of age at 21 (as the custom was back in the day). It was given its debut by none other than the Philadelphia Orchestra and Charles Dutoit with violinist Chantal Juilliet. Rather like Juillet’s other discs, that is a work of unblushingly dazzling and viscous romance. The style feels fresh but in order to orientate your expectations think in terms of Walton, Barber, Prokofiev and Szymanowski.  It is no mere superficiality that the first movement is marked Appassionato and it is twice as long as the other two combined. The soloist soars in vesper stratospheres. Often the orchestra murmurs ‘sweet nothings’, as in the middle movement which had me in mind of Barber’s Knoxville where the child, lying on his back in the garden, gazes up at the night skies and thinks of the ineffable. This mood carries over, but with a more rapidly pounding pulse, in the Chamber concerto No. 1 for Violin, Piano, and String Orchestra, Op. 28A. Chamber concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra Op. 28B yearns just as pungently but there is a deeper auburn backdrop from the orchestra and some steely upward probings that reminded me of William Schuman. The not-quite-so-little Air for Violin and String Orchestra Op. 118 (2011) surges with passion and contentment – by no means the same thing.

Liebermann must count himself smiled upon by the gods in having found this violinist, this orchestra, this conductor and the technical team that produce such high calorific value performances and sound. The notes are by the soloist (briefly) and extensively, and in English only, by Myron Silberstein.

Without being milksop the listener will find this music easy of access yet with just enough grit and fibre to hold the mind and heart.

Rob Barnett

Availability: Blue Griffin