Rolf Liebermann

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rolf Liebermann (September 14, 1910 – January 2, 1999) was a Swiss composer of different kinds of music. His output included chansons, classical, and light music. His classical music often combines a myriad of styles and techniques, including baroque, classical, and twelve-tone music. In the 1930's, he studied composition and conducting with Hermann Scherchen in Vienna, and later Wladimir Vogel.

Liebermann was the director of the Hamburg Staatsoper from 1959 to 1973. During his tenure in Hamburg, he commissioned 24 new operas, including The Devils by Krzysztof Penderecki, Der Prinz von Homburg by Hans Werner Henze, and Help, Help the Globolinks! by Gian Carlo Menotti. He later served as director of the Paris Opera from 1973 to 1980. In the 1980s, Liebermann returned to the Hamburg Staatsoper for three years again as director.^[1]

[edit] Works

1943 Polyphone Studien for chamber orchestra
1944 Une des fins du monde, cantata for baritone and orchestra after Jean Giraudoux
1945 Chinese Love Songs; Furioso
1947 Swiss Folk Song Suite (Schweizerische Volksliedersuite)
1949 Music for Orchestra and Reciter; Chinese Song; Symphony No 1
1950 Streitlied zwischen Leben und Tod (Combat Song of Life and Death)
1951 Sonata for piano
1952 Leonore 40/45 (opera). First performance: Basle
1954 Penelope (opera). First performance: Salzburg Festival(Szell/Schuh/Neher); Concerto for Jazzband and Symphony Orchestra. First performance: Donaueschingen, cond. H. Rosbaud. American première: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, cond. Fritz Reiner
1955 The School for Wives (opera). First performance of the one-act version: Louisville, Kentucky
1957 Die Schule der Frauen (opera). European premiere: Salzburg Festival (Szell/Schuh/Neher)
1958 Geigy Festival Concerto for Basle drum and orchestra
1959 Capriccio for soprano, violin and orchestra
1964 Concert des Echanges, Swiss National Exhibition, Lausanne
1981 Essai 81 for cello and piano
1984 Ferdinand, parable for speaker and instruments
1987 La Forêt (opera). First performance: Geneva (Tate/Deflo/Orlandi)
1988 Herring Quintet; Cosmopolitan Greetings (Gruntz/Wilson/Ginsberg)
1989 Medea Monologue for soprano, female choir and orchestra
1990 3x1 = CH+X for mezzo-soprano, choir, and orchestra
1992 Freispruch für Medea (opera). First performance: Hamburg 1995
1994 Enigma; Violin Concerto
1995 Piano Concerto
1996 Die schlesischen Weber (text: Heinrich Heine) for mixed choir, string quartet, and piano
1997 Variations on a Theme from Appenzell for five instruments
1998 Mouvance for nine percussion players and piano