Search - Steuart Liebig, Kammerstig :: Steuart Liebig: Pomegranate

Stravinsky-->Zappa-->Zorn-->Liebig

Etan Rosenbloom | Los Angeles | 10/07/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Steuart Liebig's Pomegranate fuses the quirky chamber ensemble rhetoric of Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat," Schoenbergian serialism, and an improvised music bent that is totally contemporary. The former two qualities connect this suite of four pieces with modern classical music, and certainly the concerto format is most often associated with through-composed art music. But look at the solo instruments that Liebig writes for: french horn? contrabass? sopranino saxophone? ELECTRIC GUITAR?!?! Just looking at the instrumentation, it is clear that this music looks ahead even as it is tied to classical traditions.



Complicating the pigeonholer's job further is a rotating cast of musical styles and methods within each piece. Liebig purposefully juxtaposes structure and freedom, a concept long associated with jazz and improvised music but still jarring when heard in a more classical setting. "Flare up like flame and create dark shadows" begins with Vinny Golia's solo sopranino saxophone cadenza, moves into a cacophonous cycle of thematic statements, then launches into a free jazz section with a walking bass ostinato and Alex Cline's swinging drums. The piece alternates among Webern-style atonal composition, Albert Ayler squalls and hard bop dozens of times in the space of each lengthy piece. Liebig's compositional sense recalls that of John Zorn's chamber works, but where Zorn's abrupt stylistic leaps are intentionally lacking in fluidity, each of the elements in Pomegranate's concertos seem to hang together.



This project certainly stands out in both Liebig's ouevre and the Cryptogramophone catalog. That it is so satisfying is testament to the expert musicianship displayed every step of the way, and also to Steuart Liebig's imaginative writing and leadership."