Peter Lieberson
Peter Lieberson (1946-2011) was an American composer, born in New York City to Goddard Lieberson, head of Columbia Records, and the ballerina Vera Zorina. He studied composition with Milton Babbitt and then with Charles Wuorinen at Columbia, and became a student of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, whose teachings shaped much of his music. His Neruda Songs were written for his wife, the mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Lieberson followed Trungpa to Boulder in 1976, later co-directed Shambhala Training in Boston and then worked for it in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He took a Ph.D.
Instrumental Music (LP)
Contemporary pieces for piano and ensemble composed in the 1970's and released on CRI's "American Contemporary" series in 1976.
Piano Works
Pianist Peter Serkin is renowned for his performances and recordings of contemporary music. He has worked closely with composers such as Olivier Messiaen, Toru Takemitsu, Luciano Berio, and Peter Lieberson; he also was a founding member of the chamber group Tashi.
Igor Stravinsky's 1925 Serenade en La was originally composed to suit phonograph players, with each movement designed to fit the three-minute capacity of each of four ten-inch 78rpm sides. The title, Stravinsky explained, did not mea…
Piano Concerto
The Piano Concerto was Peter Lieberson's first orchestral work and was, from the outset, conceived with Peter Serkin in mind as the soloist. He wrote it after a long period of immersion in the study of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. Throughout what Lieberson regards as the "journey" of the Piano Concerto, the character of each movement changes dramatically, though the very tune that unfolds at the opening of the work returns in full just before the end. Each of the three movements reflects in a mus…