Customer Reviews

Peter Lieberson: King Gesar

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Mr. Lieberson is an American composer who has produced a nice range of works, perhaps with a strength in piano and voice (perhaps not surprising, considering his late wife was a highly-respected singer). He's still active, thankfully, and this work is from 1992, showing a hint of the eclecticism that a lot of composers and other musicians picked up during the 1960s and 70s.

King Gesar is written for nine musicians and is a kind of sprechstimme tale taken from Tibetan legend. The instrumentation is a rather idiosyncratic mix with a percussionist, two pianos, cello, flute, horn, clarinet, and trombone, giving me the impression it was written for some very specific players. On this disk, we're lucky to have big-time musicians like pianists Peter Serkin and Emanuel Ax, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and trombonist David Taylor to perform. The heart of the piece is the narration of the tale, sometimes sung, sometimes spoken, and occasionally chanted here by Omar Ebrahim (whose performance is neatly judged, save for a touch of prissiness here and there).

The interesting thing about this work is that it's dominated by Douglas Penick's beautifully worded libretto and the story leaps into the imagination. Lieberson's music is so perfectly melded to the text and the voice part seems to flow naturally from the text as a single, unified piece that even after repeated listens, I still get excited by the story, laugh at the jolts of humor, and wonder at the moments of magic.