The Piano Concerto No. 3 is a composition for solo

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

by the American composer

Peter Lieberson Peter Goddard Lieberson (25 October 1946 – 23 April 2011) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. His song cycles include two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Music: '' Rilke Songs'' and ''Neruda Songs''; the latter won t ...

. The work was commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra for the ensemble's centennial. It was given its world premiere by the pianist

Peter Serkin Peter Adolf Serkin (July 24, 1947 – February 1, 2020) was an American classical pianist. He won the Grammy Award for Most Promising New Classical Recording Artist in 1966, and he performed globally, known for not only "technically pristine" pl ...

and the Minnesota Orchestra in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

on November 26, 2003. The piece is dedicated to Peter Serkin and was a finalist for the 2004

Pulitzer Prize for Music The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted ...

Composition

Background

The concerto was inspired by poetry Lieberson had read in the preceding years, particularly works by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Lieberson would later further explore the works of Pablo Neruda in his 2005

song cycle A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice ...

Neruda Songs The ''Neruda Songs'' are a cycle of five songs composed for mezzo-soprano soloist and orchestra by the American composer Peter Lieberson (1946–2011) for his wife, singer Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (1954–2006). The cycle is a setting of poems by ...

''). The composer was first drawn to Neruda's poem "Leviathan," which depicts "a huge iceberg floating on the dark Arctic sea, illuminated by flashes of soft fluorescent light." Describing the language of the poem as "passionate and wrathful," Lieberson then decided that the concerto should be cast in five movements, each to be inspired by a different poem by a different poet. Lieberson initially decided that the first movement would be inspired by the Canticle to the Sun of St. Augustine, but discovered halfway through its composition that the music was more fit for a second, slow movement. He then decided that the movement inspired by "Leviathan" should instead be the first movement. Lieberson had also sketched second and fourth movements based on poems by T. S. Eliot and Charles Wright, but soon realized that both were not intrinsic to the flow of the piece. The composer instead wrote a final movement inspired by Wright's poem "Dog Creek Mainline." Lieberson recalled, "So finally I ended up with a three-movement concerto, which is what I always wanted to write, but had found my way to it through these poems." The piece is Lieberson's third piano concerto composed for

Structure

The concerto has a duration of roughly 30 minutes and is composed in three

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

: #Leviathan #Canticle #Rondo The second movement is dedicated to the memory of Lieberson's mother, who died before the work's completion.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a solo piano and an orchestra comprising three

flutes The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

(3rd doubling piccolo), two

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

s, English horn, three clarinets (3rd doubling E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet), two bassoons, contrabassoon, four

horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...

, three

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

s, two

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

s, bass trombone,

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

, four percussionists, harp, and strings.

Reception

The concerto has been praised by music critics. Andrew Clements of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' wrote, "Each of its three movements was inspired by a poem .. but the concerto stands up well on its own purely musical terms, in a language that, like the first concerto, shows unashamed debts to the great 19th-century piano concerto tradition, while placing them in a world that is entirely Lieberson's own."

References

{{portal bar, Classical music, Music Compositions by Peter Lieberson 2003 compositions Lieberson 3 Music commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra