Liebermann: Trio No. 3 for Violin, Cello, and Piano

Liebermann's Trio No.3 (2012), is a 16-minute work in one movement which unfolds in three clearly discernable sections. The introduction features a cadenza for violin followed by one for cello, heard over repeated pp chords in the piano. The broadly lyric section that follows features long lines in the strings over a glittering ostinato in the piano. In stark contrast, the final section of the Trio is a menacing and somewhat jazzy processional bearing the subtitle (They’re coming…).

The composer has written:
"The entire Trio was written during a year notable for events which revealed some of the most disturbing aspects of American culture: events ranging from multiple public shootings to the hate-filled rhetoric leading up to the 2012 election. For me, the viewing of almost any news media these days seems to inspire an encroaching sense of paranoia and despair. I think some of this feeling crept into the work’s final section, which has an undercurrent of pessimistic sarcasm running throughout. The Trio culminates in a climax which seems to be a musical embodiment of the triumph of banality, before it all comes crashing down in an abrupt ending. Individual audience members are invited to imagine a bogeyman of their own choosing to serve as the object of paranoia represented in this closing section."