René Leibowitz

René Leibowitz (; ; 17 February 1913 – 29 August 1972) was a Polish and French composer, conductor, music theorist and teacher. He was historically significant in promoting the music of the Second Viennese School in Paris after the Second World War, and teaching a new generation of serialist composers.

Leibowitz remained firmly committed to the musical aesthetic of Arnold Schoenberg, and was to some extent sidelined among the French avant-garde in the 1950s, when, under the influence of Leibowitz's former student, Pierre Boulez and others, the music of Schoenberg's pupil Anton Webern was adopted as the orthodox model by younger composers.

Although his compositional ideas remained strictly serialist, as a conductor Leibowitz had broad sympathies, performing works by composers as diverse as Gluck, Beethoven, Brahms, Offenbach and Ravel, and his repertory extended to include pieces by Gershwin, Puccini, Sullivan and Johann Strauss.

Life and career Early years The facts about Leibowitz's early years are problematical, complicated by his practice of reinventing his history, but it is known that he was born in Warsaw. According to his pupil and translator, Jan Maguire, who wrote two studies of him for Tempo magazine in the late 1970s, Leibowitz was of Russian Jewish parentage; his father was an art historian. During the First World War the family was obliged to move from Warsaw to Berlin, where, Maguire writes, Leibowitz began a career as a concert violinist at the age of ten. Neither is now believed to be correct: Sabine Meine wrote in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians in 2001, "Leibowitz's claims of having met Schoenberg and studied with Webern in the early 1930s remain unsubstantiated",

Paris In Paris, according to Maguire, Leibowitz earned his living as a jazz pianist and composed constantly. In his early twenties he married an artist from an illustrious French family and settled down in Paris, eventually taking French nationality.

When the Germans invaded France in the Second World War, Leibowitz was interned as an alien for a time. He did not succeed in emigrating, but, as the musicologist Reinhard Kapp puts it, "managed to survive somehow, partly hidden by [Georges] Bataille in Paris, at other times with his family in the Unoccupied Zone". In 1944, just before the liberation of Paris, there was a party at the Left Bank apartment of the Swiss artist Balthus attended by artistic opponents of the Nazis, such as Picasso and others; Leibowitz provided the music.

Although Leibowitz was receptive to a wide range of musical styles, he could not bear the music of Sibelius, and published a pamphlet about him under the title of Sibelius: the Worst Composer in the World; he also severely criticised Bartók for writing music that was too accessible: Leibowitz felt that by failing to adopt dodecaphony in his later works Bartók was pandering to popular taste rather than helping to move music away from tonality in accordance with Leibowitz's notions of historical inevitability and composers' duty. For Leibowitz, to write a popular work like Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra was a betrayal of modernism.

Grove has articles on thirty-two composers who studied with Leibowitz in Paris or attended his sessions at Darmstadt or elsewhere: as well as Boulez and Monod, they include Vinko Globokar; Hans Werner Henze; Diego Masson; Serge Nigg; and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. The writer Joan Peyser summed up Leibowitz's career:

Leibowitz died suddenly in Paris on 29 August 1972, at the age of 59. it was among the first to attempt to follow Beethoven's metronome markings, following the pioneering set made in Vienna three years earlier, conducted by Hermann Scherchen. In 1995 Richard Taruskin, analysing a selection of Beethoven recordings, concluded that Leibowitz, like Scherchen, delivered performances that were musically and musicologically superior to more recent attempts by "authentic" conductors such as Christopher Hogwood. By the 21st century the performances had come to seem old-fashioned, in the view of a critic in Fanfare, who found them more akin to those by Herbert von Karajan than to those by specialist authenticists such as Roger Norrington and John Eliot Gardiner.

With the Decca team, Leibowitz recorded eleven more albums between 1959 and 1962. They included large-scale works such as The Rite of Spring, symphonies by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, and concertos by Grieg, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, as well as short pieces by more than thirty composers ranging from Bach to Gershwin, from Wagner to Sullivan, Puccini and Johann Strauss.

Works

Piano Sonata op.1 (1939) 10 Canons for wind trio op.2 (1939) String Quartet no.1 op.3 (1940) Symphony op.4 (1941) Double concerto for violin, piano and 17 instruments op.5 (1942) 6 Songs for bass and piano op.6 (1942) Tourist Death, concert aria for soprano and chamber orchestra (T: Archibald MacLeish) op.7 (1943) 4 Piano Pieces op.8 (1943) 3 Songs for soprano and piano (T: Pablo Picasso) op.9 (1943) Chamber Concerto for nine instruments op.10 (1944) Wind Quintet op.11 (1944) Sonata for violin and piano op.12a (1944) Sonata for flute and piano op.12b (1944) Empedokles for mixed a cappella chorus (T: Friedrich Hölderlin) op.13 (1944/45) Variations for orchestra op.14 (1945) L'explication des métaphores/Explanation of Metaphors (T: Raymond Queneau) op.15 (1947) Chamber Symphony ("Kammersymphonie") for 12 instruments op.16 (1948) La Nuit close, music drama in three acts (T: Georges Limbour) op.17 (1947–50) 4 Songs for soprano and piano (T: Michel Leiris) op.18 (1949) 3 Piano Pieces op.19 (1949) Piano Trio op.20 (1950) L'Emprise du Donné op.21 (1950) String Quartet no.2 op.22 (1950) Duo for cello and piano op.23 (1951) Perpetuum Mobile: The City – A Dramatic Symphony for Narrator and Orchestra (T: William Carlos Williams) op.24 (1951) 5 Songs for soprano and piano op.25 (1951) String Quartet no.3 op.26 (1951) Fantasy for piano op.27 (1952) 6 Short Piano Pieces op.28 (1952) 5 Pieces for clarinet and piano op.29 (1952) La Circulaire de minuit, opera in three acts (T: Georges Limbour) op.30 (1953) 6 Orchestral Pieces op.31 (1954) Concerto for piano and orchestra op.32 (1954) Träume vom Tod und vom Leben – Eine Symphonie für Soli, Sprecher, gemischten Chor und Orchester (T: Hans Arp) op.33 (1954–55) 4 Songs for soprano and piano (T: James Joyce) op.34 (1954) Concertino for viola and chamber orchestra op.35 (1954) Rhapsodie Concertante for violin and piano op.36 (1955) La notte (T: Angelo Poliziano), Epigramma (T: Torquato Tasso) and A se stesso (T: Giacomo Leopardi) for mixed chorus op.37 (1955) Serenade for baritone and eight instruments (T: Friedrich Hölderlin, Clemens Brentano) op.38 (1955) Symphonic Fantasy for orchestra op.39 (1956) The Renegade for mixed chorus and instruments (T: Lionel Abel) op.40 (1956) Capriccio for high soprano and nine instruments (T: Friedrich Hölderlin) op.41 (1956) String Trio op.42 (1956) Sonata quasi una fantasia for piano op.43 (1957) Humoresque for six percussionists op.44 (1957) String Quartet no.4 op.45 (1958) Trois Poèmes de Georges Limbour for soprano and six instruments (T: Georges Limbour) op.46 (1958)

Concertino for piano duet op.47 (1958) Overture for orchestra op.48 (1958) Damocles, song cycle for soprano and piano (T: Michel Leiris) op.49 (1958) Concerto for violin and orchestra op.50 'dedicated to Ivry Gitlis' (1958) 3 Bagatelles for string orchestra op.51 (1958) Art for Art's Sake – A Fantasia for Jazz Orchestra op.52 (1959) Concertino for trombone and orchestra op.53 (1960) Marijuana – Variations non sérieuses op.54 (1960) Sinfonietta da Camera op.55 (1961) Fantasy for violin solo op.56 (1961) Introduction, Funeral March and Fanfare op.57 (1961) Concerto for cello and orchestra op.58 (1962) String Quartet no.5 op.59 (1963) Les Espagnols à Venise – Opera buffa in one act (T: Georges Limbour) op.60 (1964) Quatre bagatelles for trombone and piano op.61 (1963) Toccata pour piano op.62 (1964) Symphonic Rhapsody for orchestra op.63 (1965) Trois Études miniatures for piano op.64 (1965) String Quartet no.6 op.65 (1965) Suite for violin and piano op.66 (1965) 2 Songs for soprano and piano (T: Aimé Cesaire) op.67 (1965) A Prayer – A Symphonic Cantata for mezzo-soprano, male chorus and orchestra (T: James Joyce) op.68 (1965) Sonatina for flute, viola and harp op.69 (1966) Trois Caprices for vibraphone op.70 (1966) Two Settings after William Blake for mixed chorus (T: William Blake) op.71 (1966) String Quartet no.7 op.72 (1966) Trois Poèmes de Georges Bataille for bass and piano (T: Georges Bataille) op.73 (1966) Motifs for speaker and instruments (T: Georges Limbour) op.74 (1967) Petite Suite for piano op.75 (1966) Deux Poèmes for soprano and piano (T: Michel Leiris) op.76a (1966) Chanson Dada, three melodramas for treble and instruments (T: Tristan Tzara) op.76b (1966) Sonnet for soprano and five instruments (T: E. E. Cummings) op.77 (1967) Rondo capriccioso for piano op.78 (1967) Capriccio for flute and strings op.79 (1967) 4 Songs for bass and piano (T: Carl Einstein) op.80 (1967) Suite for nine instruments op.81 (1967) Legend for soprano, piano and orchestra (T: Hart Crane) op.82 (1968) String Quartet no.8 op.83 (1968) Saxophone Quartet op.84 (1969) Labyrinthe, music drama in one act (T: René Leibowitz after Charles Baudelaire) op.85 (1969) 4 Songs for bass and piano (T: Paul Celan) op.86 (1969) Tre Intermezzi per pianoforte op.87 (1970) Laboratoire Central – Short Cantata for speaker, female chorus and instruments (T: Max Jacob) op.88 (1970) Scene and Aria for soprano and orchestra (T: Georg Heym) op.89 (1970) Clarinet Sextet op.90 (1970) Todos Caeràn, opera in 2 acts and 5 tableaux (T: René Leibowitz) op.91 (1971) Trois Poèmes de Pierre Reverdy for vocal quartet and piano (T: Pierre Reverdy) op.92 (1971) String Quartet no.9 op.93 (1972)

Discography (incomplete) As conductor Mono recordings Bizet: Les Pêcheurs de perles. Mattiwilda Dobbs, Enzo Seri, Jean Borthayre; Paris Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra. Preiser (CD) Gluck: Alceste – Semser, Seri, Demigny, Mollien, Hoffmann, Lindenfelder, Chœur et Orch Phil de Paris, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Orchestre Philharmonique de Paris (1950) Gluck: L'ivrogne corrigé: Jean-Christophe Benoît, Bernard Demigny, Claudine Collart, Freda Betti and Jean Hoffmann. (Nixa, 1951) Massenet & Puccini: A Portrait of Manon – Anna Moffo, Giuseppe di Stefano, Flaviano Labo, Robert Kerns – RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Testament (CD) Offenbach: La Belle Hélène. Paris Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra. Regis (CD) Offenbach: Orphée aux enfers – Paris Opera Chorus and Orchestra. Regis (CD), also Preiser (CD) Ravel: L'Heure espagnole – Janine Linda, André Dran, Jean Mollien, Jean Hoffmann, Lucien Mans, Orch Radio-Symph de Paris (Vox PL7880) Rossini: overtures to L'Italiana in Algeri, La gazza ladra, Guillaume Tell, Semiramide – Pasdeloup Orchestra (Urania-USD-1014) Roussel: Le Festin de l'Araignée suite (1912) & Le Marchand de sable qui passe – Paris Philharmonic Orch (Counterpoint-Esoteric LP 5511) Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder. Ethel Semser, Nell Tangeman, John Riley, Richard Lewis, Ferry Gruber, Morris Gesell, Chœurs et Orchestre de la Nouvelle Association Symphonique de Paris. Schoenberg: Piano Concerto Op. 42. Claude Helffer (piano), Orchestre Radio-Symphonique de Paris. Counterpoint (LP) Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire. Ethel Semser, The Virtuoso Chamber Ensemble. Argo/Westminster (LP)

Stereo recordings

May 1959 International Symphony Orchestra Schumann Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Op. 97 "Rhenish" Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1 S110/2 June 1959 "London Festival Orchestra" (New Symphony Orchestra of London) Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Debussy Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune June 1960 Malcolm Frager (piano) Paris Conservatoire Orchestra Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor Op. 16 June 1960 Paris Conservatoire Orchestra Offenbach Orphée aux enfers: Overture Debussy Petite Suite: En bateau Ravel Bolero Ravel La valse Gounod Faust: Ballet Music Gounod Funeral March of a Marionette Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre Op. 40 Pierné Marche des petits soldats de plomb Borodin Prince Igor: Overture & Polovtsian Dances Dukas L'apprenti sorcier Bizet Carmen: Suite Auber Les diamants de la couronne: Overture Offenbach Les contes d'Hoffmann: Barcarolle Puccini Manon Lescaut: Intermezzo Mozart Le nozze di Figaro K492: Overture February 1961 "London Festival Orchestra" Chopin Polonaise in A-flat Op. 53 Gade Jealousy Delibes La Source: Intermezzo Waldteufel Les Patineurs – Waltz Op. 183 Dinicu Hora Staccato Dvořák Humoresque Op. 101/7 B187/7 Ippolitov-Ivanov Procession of the Sadar Op. 10 Bizet Carmen: Habañera Bach-Gounod Ave Maria Franck Panis Angelicus Trad. Londonderry Air & Greensleeves J. Strauss II Die Fledermaus: Overture Falla El Amor Brujo: Ritual Fire Dance Gershwin Porgy and Bess: Excerpts Boccherini String Quintet in E G275: Minuet Sullivan HMS Pinafore: Overture Rimsky-Korsakov Tsar Saltan: Flight of the Bumble Bee Beethoven Die Ruinen von Athen, Op. 113: Turkish March

April, May and June 1961 Inge Borkh (soprano), Ruth Siewert (contralto), Richard Lewis (tenor), Ludwig Weber (bass), Royal Philharmonic Chorus; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Beethoven: Symphonies 1–9 January and February 1962 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Mozart Symphony No. 41 in C, K551 "Jupiter" Wagner Tannhäuser: Overture Bach-Leibowitz Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor BWV 582 Schubert Symphony No. 9 in C, D944 "Great" Offenbach-Leibowitz La vie parisienne February 1962 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Musorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture Op. 21 Mendelssohn Octet in E-flat Op. 20: Scherzo Mussorgsky-Leibowitz Night on the Bare Mountain Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72a Wagner Die Meistersinger: Prelude to act 1 October 1962 Hyman Bress (violin) Earl Wild (piano) Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64 Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 16 Beethoven Egmont Op. 84: Overture December 1962 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Weber Der Freischütz J277: Overture Schumann Manfred Op. 115: Overture March 1963 Leonard Pennario (piano) London Symphony Orchestra Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat S124 Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 in A S125

Publications by Leibowitz 1947 Schoenberg et son école: l'étape contemporaine du langage musical. [Paris]: J.B. Janin. (English edition, as Schoenberg and His School: The Contemporary Stage in the Language of Music. Translated by Dika Newlin. New York: Philosophical Library, 1949). 1948. Qu'est-ce que la musique de douze sons? Le Concerto pour neuf instruments, op. 24, d'Anton Webern. Liège: Éditions Dynamo. 1949. Introduction à la musique de douze sons. Les variations pour orchestre op. 31, d'Arnold Schoenberg. Paris: L'Arche. 1950. L'artiste et sa conscience: esquisse d'une dialectique de la conscience artistique. Préf. de Jean-Paul Sartre. Paris: L'Arche. 1950. Scènes de la vie musicale américaine. Liège: Éditions Dynamo. 1950. Arnold Schoenberg ou Sisyphe dans la musique contemporaine. Liège: Éditions Dynamo. 1951. L'évolution de la musique, de Bach à Schoenberg. Paris: Éditions Corrêa. 1957. Histoire de l'opéra. Paris: Buchet Chastel. 1969. Schoenberg. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. 1971. Le compositeur et son double: essais sur l'interprétation musicale. Paris: Gallimard. (Ed. augm., version définitive. Paris: Gallimard, 1986.) 1972. Les fantômes de l'opéra: essais sur le théâtre lyrique. Paris: Gallimard.

Notes, references and sources