DAVID KOREVAAR

• Liebermann: Impromptu No.2

"[David Korevaar] displays his considerable gifts in these readings. He dashes off the technical demands of some of these works with aplomb, while caressing the simple and quiet sections to bring out every last bit of their poetic nature. Here is a pianist with palpably clear musical gifts and intelligence, and one who should be widely heard. Recommended on all accounts to the point you’ll find this disc on my Want List elsewhere in this issue."

David DeBoor Canfield, Fanfare [November/December 2018]

[ * * * * ] “[Korevaar] is an excellent choice in this repertory. [Liebermann’s Piano Sonata No.3] is a masterly mélange of formidable difficulties... [The four Nocturnes] are remarkable in their similar emotional content, dark, somewhat foreboding, yet seductive in their polytonal colors and melodic attractiveness... [The Two Impromptus are] both superb examples of the composer’s ability on the piano. David Korevaar measures this music as only an insider can, providing sumptuous performances in outstanding, gracious sound. Do make the acquaintance of Lowell Liebermann in some form if you have not already. This is as good a place to start as any!”

Steve Ritter, Audiophile Audition [December 2018]

"To those who believe that good piano music ended with Prokofiev and Rachmaninov, this [Liebermann CD] is evidence that it lives on. What makes the disc especially notable is the exceptional pianism of David Korevaar. He has already given us excellent discs of Chopin works and Hindemith sonatas, both for this same label. He has also recorded CDs of JS Bach works, Schubert sonatas and much chamber music. After listening to his interpretation of these Liebermann works, I can’t imagine significantly better performances... For Liebermann admirers then, this disc is probably essential; for those wanting to explore good contemporary piano music, here’s a fine prospect."

Robert Cummings, MusicWeb International [November 2018]

"‘Korevaar balances a virtuosic technique that anyone would envy with great sensitivity and unerring musical judgement. I look forward to hearing the other releases in this fine series."

Haskins, American Record Guide [September/October 2018]

"one needs boundless resources of technique, tone, colour and musical imagination to do Liebermann's keyboard aesthetic justice. David Korevaar possesses these qualities in spades and manages to create an individual character with each selection... the present disc brilliantly reflects this pianist's probing individuality and firm commitment to the material"

Jed Distler, Gramophone, Awards Issue [October 2018]

“superbly performed and sumptuously annotated and recorded... Lowell Liebermann is one of America's finest and most frequently performed and recorded living composers... [Korevaar's] programme is, maybe, one of the most imaginative and representative of the composer's immense gifts to write music that is modern and yet so beautiful and attractive. The four Nocturnes, the last he composed in the genre, push the boundaries to almost the very limits... The Schubert Variations combine virtuosity and historical references in a wonderfully imaginative and at times bizarre way... [The second Impromptu] taxes the soloist's mental and physical dexterity to the full... The Sonata No 3 is maybe the pick of the programme... it is extrovert and darkly dramatic, and has a large-scale fast-slow-fast structure which gives it a dynamic diversity that keeps the listener consistently enthralled. This is an adventurous undertaking, superbly performed and sumptuously annotated and recorded.”

Gerald Fenech, Music & Vision [August 2018]

“[The works are] very well performed... Liebermann’s music is delicate, sensitive, even sensual in its near-devotional sensibilities... David Korevaar, whose care and sensitivity are evident throughout this disc, does an especially fine job with the contrasts inherent in the [Variations on a Theme of Schubert]... [The Two Impromptus offer] plenty of opportunities to display technique...”

Mark J. Estren, InfoDad [August 2018]

From the beginning of his career, Lowell Liebermann has written for the piano. His command of the instrument as a performer and deep understanding of its sonic possibilities come through in every superbly crafted work of his – solo, chamber or concerto – that I have played. With this release, my third album of his solo piano music, I bring up to date an ongoing project to record all of this repertoire. This album contains the original works for solo piano composed between 2001 and 2017, including the last four of Liebermann’s eleven Nocturnes, the Variations on Schubert’s Heidenröslein, Sonata No.3 and his Two Impromptus. While all of these works reflect the composer’s deeply held view that music is, above all, about expression, they explore a myriad of emotional worlds, from quiet introversion and lyricism to dark and explosive outbursts of unrestrained virtuosity.
[David Korevaar]


Lowell Liebermann is one of America’s most frequently performed and recorded living composers, with works in every genre from opera and symphony to chamber music, art song and works for solo instruments. Much of his music has become standard repertoire, including the frequently recorded Sonata for Flute and Piano and Gargoyles for piano. Liebermann has written two full-length operas, both of which were enthusiastically received at their premieres. His first, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was commissioned and premiered by Monte Carlo Opera. His  second opera, Miss Lonelyhearts, to a libretto by J.D. McClatchy after the novel by Nathanael West, was commissioned by the Juilliard School to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Among his orchestral works, Liebermann has composed four symphonies (Symphony No.2, with chorus, having been written for the centennial of the Dallas Symphony), a Concerto for Orchestra, three Piano Concertos, and several Concertos for a range of instruments. Liebermann’s Piano Concerto No.3 was commissioned for pianist Jeffrey Biegel by a consortium of eighteen different orchestras from around the world. His music has been championed by notable performers, including Stephen Hough, Chantal Juillet, Charles Dutoit, Robert White, Jon Manasse, David Korevaar, and others. Liebermann has also composed five String Quartets (the most recent of which having been written for the Emerson, Ying and Orion string quartets), four Cello Sonatas, three Piano Trios, Sonatas for Flute, Violin, Viola, Flute and Harp, and chamber works for many other combinations. An accomplished pianist himself, Liebermann has composed a wealth of music for the instrument, much of which frequently appears on concert and competition programs. Liebermann was awarded the first American Composers’ Invitational Award by the 11th Van Cliburn Competition.
[ www.lowellliebermann.com ]

David Korevaar, whose association with composer Lowell Liebermann dates from their student days at Juilliard, performs an extensive repertoire as soloist and chamber musician around the United States and internationally. In addition to his teaching at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he holds the Peter and Helen Weil Fellowship in piano and where he has been named Distinguished Research Lecturer (2016), he has been a regular participant as performer and  teacher at Colorado’s Music in the Mountains summer festival and continues to teach and perform regularly in Japan under the auspices of The Music Center Japan. In the spring of 2016, Korevaar spent two weeks teaching in Kabul at the  Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM). The 2016-2017 season also included two tours to Brazil and a recital and master classes in Mexico City. In September 2017, he conducted and performed two of Mozart’s piano concertos in Boulder, bringing home a skill acquired in Japan and Brazil over the last several years. In October 2017, he hosted a week-long residency by Lowell Liebermann at the University of Colorado, including performances of two complete programs of piano solo and chamber works performed by students, faculty, and alumni, coached by the composer. In addition to two previous critically acclaimed discs of Lowell Liebermann’s piano works, Korevaar recorded two albums of Liebermann’s chamber music, all released on Koch International Classics. Korevaar’s extensive discography includes numerous solo and chamber music recordings, with repertoire from J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms to Dohnanyi, Ravel and Hindemith. Recent releases include a disc of chamber works by Tibor Harsányi with Charles Wetherbee (Naxos), and a Chopin recital on MSR. In addition, his collaboration with members of the Takacs Quartet has resulted in a number of releases, including a disc of Brahms with violist Geraldine Walther and cellist Andras Fejer (MSR), two Beethoven Violin Sonatas with violinist Edward Dusinberre (Decca), and Hindemith’s music for Viola and Piano with Geraldine Walther (MSR).
[ www.davidkorevaar.com ] LOWELL LIEBERMANN (b. 1961)
NOCTURNE NO.8, OP.85 (2003)

NOCTURNE NO.9, OP.97 (2006)

NOCTURNE NO.10, OP.99 (2007)

NOCTURNE NO.11, OP.112 (2010)

VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF SCHUBERT, OP.100 (2007)

TWO IMPROMPTUS, OP.131 (2016)
Impromptu No.1 — Limpido con molto rubato
Impromptu No.2 — Molto lento e sereno

PIANO SONATA NO.3, OP.82 (2002)
I. Inquieto, esitante
II. Dona nobis pacem
III. Lullabye
IV. Interlude
 



MSR Classics