On Saturday night I was fortunate to play cello in the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra's concert "A New World Experience." The highlight of the evening was Lowell Liebermann's clarinet concerto, performed splendidly by soloist Miles Jaques.
Although the clarinet concerto was released in 2009, it is still working its way into mainstream repertoire. Since the world premiere it has been performed across the country by Jon Manasse. The last performance, according to Liebermann's website, was in 2011. The performance in Sioux City was the Iowa premiere. The concert, though, was just the finale to a three-day event starring Liebermann and Jaques.
On Thursday the University of South Dakota—Vermillion, hosted Miles Jaques for a clarinet master class. On Friday, Liebermann visited USD as well, to give a lecture about his compositions — namely, the clarinet concerto. For an hour, the New York composer, 53, sat on the edge of the stage wearing jeans and a t-shirt, joking about learning piano from old ladies down the street. A fantastic storyteller, he held the room full of caffeinated undergrads rapt with anecdotes between samples of his works and questions from the audience. Then, in the afternoon he appeared at Morningside College in a master class of his flute and piccolo compositions. By Saturday evening, the tri-state area was abuzz with news of the two artists.
Liebermann also attended a rehearsal of the concerto, which for the orchestra was truly a "New World Experience" (imagine being coached on the 5th Symphony by Herr Beethoven himself)! At first I was disappointed that Liebermann's comments were mostly technical — about balance and voicing more than anything. However, this left more interpretive freedom to the soloist and conductor, making the performance unique.
Not programmatic, the music is nonetheless highly evocative, and with each passing motif I was awash with different emotions — from the unsettled mystery and power of the first movement to almost grief in the second, then sheer fun throughout the third. The energy of the orchestra peaked in the third movement, as rhythm from the lower instruments fueled frenzied action by the soloist; it felt like the inner workings of an engine at full throttle.
In the end, both Lowell Liebermann and Miles Jaques seemed incredibly pleased. A snowstorm had kept some would-be audience members away, but the hardy music lovers who did attend rewarded the musician, the soloist, and the orchestra with an enthusiastic standing ovation.
Abigail Sandberg is originally from Hutchinson, Minn. She currently studies music performance at the University of South Dakota.
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