String Quartet No.5 for 2 violins, viola and cello Op.126 (2014) c. 20'00"

Commissioned for The Emerson Quartet by Music Accord

First performed on September 27th, 2014 at the Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan by The Emerson Quartet

REVIEWS

“Liebermann is among the most gifted of living American composers, and his Quartet No.5 is a strong, compelling and powerfully communicative work…We need to hear much more of Lowell Liebermann’s music in Chicago.”
Chicago Classical Review

“..the piece’s haunted tone is unmistakable…Liebermann’s writing is unambiguously tonal, even in its most dissonant moments, but that oft-noted fact is less important than the utterly idiomatic string writing and the profusion of melodies that are everywhere apparent. Even the melancholy is refined and polished…”
The Boston Globe

“The Liebermann was particularly interesting: an unsettling, darker opening, then a wild scherzo, and finally a lovely, richly harmonized section…”
The Seattle Times

“…a single symmetrical movement of two slow, lyrical laments that surround a heart of anger…The quartet’s sorrowful air at time felt strikingly morose, but it took a more seraphic turn with time, and ultimately beguiled.”
The New York Times

“Lowell Liebermann’s restless String Quartet No.5 received a haunting performance.”
The Aspen Times