{"id":857,"date":"2011-04-25T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2011\/04\/composer-peter-lieberson-rip.html"},"modified":"2011-04-25T09:15:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T16:15:00","slug":"composer-peter-lieberson-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2011\/04\/composer-peter-lieberson-rip.html","title":{"rendered":"Composer Peter Lieberson, RIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

IT”S easy to recall the rude good health with which Peter Lieberson, a serene and gracious Santa Fe-based composer who was in town for a new piece with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, greeted me in 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Peter Lieberson, 1946-2011<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

We spoke about the poetry of Neruda — the inspiration for his latest piece — his range of classical influences, the music of jazz pianist Bill Evans, his interest in Buddhism and his father Goddard’s leadership of Columbia Records.\u00a0The composer’s wife, the heavenly mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, came to the door to say a brief but loving hello to him. Here, I thought at the time, is a handsome, cool guy with a searching mind and a wife of unparalleled talent — he seemed to have it made.<\/p>\n

In just over a year, Lorraine had died from breast cancer. Peter would soon be diagnosed with cancer himself, and he passed away Saturday <\/a>in Tel Aviv, where he was undergoing treatment for lymphoma. He was 64.<\/p>\n

HERE<\/a> is my piece from the LA Times, just before the 2005 world premiere of “Neruda Songs.” And here is an excerpt from my story:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Over lunch in an artist’s suite at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lieberson describes himself as a kind of conscientious objector in the wars that have long wracked the classical music world.<\/i><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pablo Neruda<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
“This is a battle that no longer needs to be fought,” he says, describing the still-smoldering fight between academic 12-tone composers and the minimalists and other mavericks who oppose them. “There was something to it; there were a lot of people hurt in the ’60s and ’70s. But I don’t think it’s necessary to keep re-creating the struggle.”<\/i><\/div>\n
Rarely does an interview subject make the impression on me that Peter Lieberson did. I’m not the only one who will miss him.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IT”S easy to recall the rude good health with which Peter Lieberson, a serene and gracious Santa Fe-based composer who was in town for a new piece with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, greeted me in 2005. Peter Lieberson, 1946-2011 We spoke about the poetry of Neruda — the inspiration for his latest piece — his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,130,30,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-classical-music","7":"category-la-philharmonic","8":"category-los-angeles","9":"category-west-coast","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}