George Liebling

              George Liebling
A few Reviews in brief of some of the eminent critics.



George Liebling
International Pianist-Composer

Figure


Third American Season



From His Press Comments:

A Master Pianist.
The most modern player of romantic music.
A Poet amongst the great pianists.
A Master of Interpretation.




AEOLIAN HALL
Thirty-Four West Forty-Third Street
SUNDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 10TH, 1926
at 8 o'clock

RECITAL
GEORGE LIEBLING—Pianist-Composer

Assisted by Mr. JOSEPH COLEMAN, Violinist



PROGRAM


I.
Sonata No. 2, for Violin and Piano, op. 63*


GEORGE LIEBLING





(Allegro moderato—Adagio con moto—Allegro con fucco.)



II.
Fantasy: The Wanderer in C. major, op. 15


SCHUBERT





(Allegro molto—Adagio—Scherzo—Allegro—Finale.)



III.
(a)
La Cubana, op. 71*





(b)
Venetian Lace, op. 75*





(c)
Bolero, op. 78*

GEORGE LIEBLING



(d)
A Lyric of Psyche, op. 78*





(e)
Toccata Americana, op. 84* (Dedicated to Mr. Otto H. Kahn).




IV.
Violin Pieces:






(a)
Legende, op. 65*





(b)
Moonlight, op. 80/1

GEORGE LIEBLING



(c)
Fairy Dance, op. 80/2.




V.
(a)
Toccato de Concert, op. 41*





(b)
Lucifer's Song, op. 74*

GEORGE LIEBLING



(c)
Study in double notes after CHOPIN'S
Impromptu in A flat, op. 29*.





*(First time in America.)



NEW YORK, October 10, 1926

Herald-Tribune:
Plays with spirit and fluency. … Waxing leonine in places such as the opening of the Schubert Fantasy.—Perkins.


Times:
A delightful recital. … Showed his compatriots how the musical art could still weave unaffected melodies.—Downes.


Journal:
He was a spirited and capable interpreter of his own musical intentions. … In Schubert's 'Wanderer' he ranged from the competent to the eloquent.—Weil.


Sun:
A Sonata No. 2 (Liebling) for violin and piano.  Its full even flow, the soundness and clarity of its design were at once apparent. … Schubert's 'The Wanderer' was brilliant and penetrating—Henderson.


American:
One realized that Mr. Liebling combines the rare gift of individuality in musical thought and the thorough understanding of instrumental capabilities and partnership.—Bennett.


World:
Is brilliant in matters of technique and seems to envisage intelligently the form and content of his own compositions.


Telegraph:
The Sonata is full of fine musicianship, contains many inspired passages and finishes brilliantly. … Was at his best in Schubert's 'Wanderer.' The caressing tone kept you whispering with his piano.—Stearns.





JORDAN HALL BOSTON
THE PROGRAMME

1.


Fantasia, C major Op. 17
Schumann





11.


(a)
Barcarolle, Op. 60 F sharp major
Chopin


(b)
Ballade No. 4 F Minor Op. 52
Chopin


(c)
Impromptu, A flat, Op. 29
Chopin





111.


(a)
Ballade No. 2 B Minor
Liszt


(b)
Hark, Hark, the Lark
Schubert-Liszt


(c)
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4.
Liszt





IV.


(a)
Ode to Spring
Liebling


(b)
Toccata Americana. Op. 82.
Liebling


(c)
Lucifer's Song Op. 74.
Liebling


(d)
Impromptu on black keys. Op. 70
Liebling


(e)
Toccata de Concert Op. 41
Liebling






BOSTON, October 16, 1926

Herald:
The quieter portions of both (Chopin and Liszt) Mr. Liebling played charmingly, with a beautiful singing tone for melodies, in passage work with tone at once delicate and brilliant.


Transcript:
In large measure the virtues of the Lisztians are his.  His tone is always beautiful.  His finger technic is fluent, graceful, brilliant, as occasion demands.  Large sonorities he tosses about as though they were nothing. … Possesses also a high degree of musical feeling. … High regard for nuances. … Likes to linger lovingly over meditative melodic portions of the music he is playing.


Post
Mr. Liebling's Tone was warm, he made melodies sing, he caught and revealed the intimate, essentially subjective mood of Schumann's music.


Globe:
An attempt was made to treat the piano as though it possessed the orchestra's wide range of tonal lights and shades.  Melodies were 'sung' to a subdued accompaniment.  Showy passages, conspicuously in the left hand, part, were thundered forth.





Figure


Chicago Recital
George Liebling
International Pianist-Composer

KIMBALL HALL
On Sunday Afternoon
October 24th
at 3:15 o'clock

Assisted by
Leon Sametini
Violinist



PROGRAM


I.
Second Sonata for Violin and Piano in B flat minor, op.63.*


GEORGE LIEBLING





(Allegro moderato—Adagio con moto—Allegro con fuoco.)



II.
(a)
Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor

CHOPIN



(b)
Andante Spianato and Polonaise

CHOPIN



(c)
Etude in Double Notes After the Impromptu in A flat op. 29*

CHOPIN-LIEBLING


III.
Violin Pieces:






(a)
Moonlight.  Op. 80/1*

GEORGE LIEBLING



(b)
Fairy Dance.  Op. 80/2*




IV.
(a)
LaCubana.  Op. 75*





(b)
Toccata Americana.  Op. 82* (Dedicated to Mr. Otto H. Kahn)

GEORGE LIEBLING



(c)
Lucifer's Song.  Op. 74*





(d)
Valse d'amour.  Op. 89





(e)
Toccato De Concert.  Op. 41*





*(First time in Chicago)



Chicago, October 24, 1926

Tribune:
Mr. Liebling knows his way around the complexities of the sonata form and writes readily and fluently.—Moore.


Herald-Examincr:
Set forth his wonted facility, distinction and resourcefulness in the matter of piano art and proved that he can write with real humor in the modern American idiom.—Gunn.


News:
Transcription of Chopin's A flat, 'Impromptu,' which Liebling styles an etude in double notes.  Is a clever piece in which its technical difficulties are increased. … The middle section is especially original.—Rosen-fold.


Post:
A ripe musician who still finds ample scope for the expression of his meaning.  The music was melodic in concept, with its character determined by sympathetic feeling for the instruments.  The violin had melodies to sing and the piano wove graceful patterns about the main themes.—Hackett.


American:
It is sane, good music, fashioned upon traditional lines, and with a wholesome flavor of Brahms and Cesar Franck. … It is music that one enjoys.—Devires.


Journal:
An ingratiating and expressive work.—Stinson.




THE MINNEAPOLIS
JOURNAL   February 9, 1927.


MUSIC
NEW PIANIST HERE SCORES IN RECITAL
Enthusiastic Audience Greets George Liebling—Plays Beethoven, Liszt and Chopin

By VICTOR NILSSON

Minneapolis has, in George Liebling, acquired a new pianist of rank, and his first public appearance in recital at the Unitarian church last night was greeted by a large and very enthusiastic audience, mostly made up of musicians.

For his recital Mr. Liebling presented a program reminiscent of the good old days when the sterling value of the compositions offered was the most important point to consider.  It held compositions only by Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin and Liszt and such that were truly representative of these masters of the piano.  It began with the fundamental key of C with the Waldstein sonata and followed this up with the Wanderer fantasia in the same key.

In the Beethoven sonata Mr. Liebling at once revealed himself as a scholar who for technique and interpretation has drunk deep out of the wells of first class tradition and at the same time easily recognizable as an individual artist who is fully familiar with every phase of modern pianism as well.  Of the performances by great pianists of the Waldstein sonata Mr. Liebling's most directly recalls that of Eugene d'Albert.  It had impetuosity and power and the warm glow of color that recalls the popularly made subtitle, for the work of Aurora as well chosen.  The tempo of the first allegro was very fast, but the interpreter made all his points.  The short but divine adagio which Bethoven no doubt wisely substituted for the original movement in the subdominant key, the famous Anedante Favori, you might have wished played with more crescendo and decrescendo in its exquisite pianismi, but the marvelous final allegro brought Mr. Liebling fully into his power and charm.

The Wanderer fantasit of Schubert is in spite of its somewhat bombastic opening lines one of these compositions which like the Waldstein will never die.  Mr. Liebling interpreted it with lyrie intensity and in the adagio found exquisite expression for the variations upon the Wanderer song theme.  The finale was very brilliantly played.

Of the truly great music that Chopin wrought were selected and in performance marvelously realized the Barcarolle and the last Ballade, in F minor.  The B flat minor scherzo is not quite so much worth while a composition but it was very skilfully played, not least the little charming episode which inspired Greig for his song of The Princess.

After this bulk of the program splendidly done, Mr. Liebling generously ceded to the demands for extra numbers and played of Chopin the second nocturne, in E flat, and the socalled Minute Waltz in D flat and further the Gounod Faust Waltzer transcription by Liszt, all most delightfully.

In conclusion was given a very interesting performance of Liszt's second ballade, in B minor, for which Mr. Liebling had reserved some exquisite treble passages of purest crystal.  Again enthusiastically applauded, he happily combined Schubert with Liszt in Hark, Hark the Lark.

The northwest is to be congratulated upon the fact that Mr. Liebling has taken up his work here as piano pedagogue and recitalist.





Minneapolis Morning Tribune Wednesday, February 9, 1927
MINNEAPOLIS HEARS GEORGE LIEBLING
RECITAL BY GEORGE LIEBLING

An audience that filled the unitarian Church, composed chiefly of professional musicians, heard George Liebling Tuesday evening, February 8, 1927.  Mr. Liebling has been a factor in the music of more than two contiments since he commenced his career, and is today at the apex of his ability as a concert pianist.  No higher tribute could be paid to any man's reputation than such an audience, attracted and held captive by his interpretation of a program as classic in outline as that offered at this concert.

There was no need of asking what manner of man this was who had come amongst us after listening to the rendering of Beethoven's great sonata, the Waldstein.  This artist is a product of the so-called old school when they developed musicians who relied upon their inate qualities of musicianship to elucidate the content of what ever compositions they performed.  Mr. Liebling has a sense of proportion in his attitude toward Beethoven; he feels the stimulus of profound thought and reacts to it with both power and imagination.  The Adagio in this sonata is a thing of living beauty and was conceived in this manner by the performer.  There is strength in even the most delicate musical expression, a strength that ran through the pianissimo passages, which at the same time conveyed tenderness and vivid poetry.  The imaginative quality of this work was caught admirably and presented brilliantly, especially in the Scherzo andFinale.

Perhaps the most severe test of Mr. Liebling's purely pianistic ability was in the group of three Chopin selections: the Barcarolle, Ballade in F Minor, No. 4; and the Scherzo in B Flat Minor, No. 2.  In the two first mentioned the player showed delicacy of taste, common sense, naturalness and beauty of expression.  Common sense, because to him Chopin is not a puzzle out of which may be extracted all the haze and glamour of an Arabian night, but a composer with a vital message, that needs no extraneous addenda to create the right kind of atmosphere; he creates his own atmosphere out of the music, and whether we agree with it or not there is most positive conviction that what is being said on the piano is precisely what was intended.  These three pieces were among the finest in spirit and performance of any on the program.

We don't hear very much Schubert nowadays, and there is a tendency to sneer him off most piano programs, but as Mr. Liebling rendered the Fantasy on the beautiful and famous song; Der Wanderer there is most decidedly a place for him.  All that could be made of this composition was made: tremendous fervor and bravura in the opening movement, wistful tenderness and haunting beauty in the Adagio; rippling, audacious charm in Scherzo and a Finale of telling power and virtuosity.

This artist has technic enough to disregard technic, he has splendid control over pianistic dynamies, he knows the secrets of tone weight and tone balance, he moves surely toward whatever his goal may be, bot his musical knowledge is wide and deep.  In brief, we have won another important addition to our already important music colony, one of whom we shall doubtless hear a great deal more in the future.

By JAMES DAVIES




Minneapolis Daily Star February 9, 1927
LIEBLING, NEW YORK PIANIST, FIERCELY
POETIC IN PROGRAM OF CLASSICS
George Liebling, veteran New York pianist, was presented to the Minneapolis public last night by the MacPhail School where he is a guest instructor, and gave a very fine account of his musicianship.

Not for a long time have concert goers heard a pianist of such ferocity of attack.  the intensity was entirely relished especially as Liebling was fiercely poetical as well.  He hammered the piano like a skilled ironmaker fashioning a cunning and graceful design.

Friedman and Godowsky are tough on the keys and Liebling makes a hard hitting third.  Had he tempered somewhat his strength in the Chopin the effect in the numbers by the Polish master would have been more in the manner that Chopin played them himself if his biographers are to be believed.

It was not at all amiss in the Beethoven and Liszt compositions and even Schubert did not suffer by it.  For there was also a fine sense of proportion a finely chiseled tone, clarity, precision and feeling.

Beethoven's Sonata Waldstein, Opus 53, began the evening.  The Allegro had not been entered far when it was apparent that the listeners who occupied all available space and more in the Unitarian church had been won.  The Adagio was a well of lovely sentiment and the Allegro ma non troppo a model of worthy eloquence.

Schuberts' Wanderer fantasy, Opus 15, revealed the depth and breadth, the flow and passion of Mr. Liebling's style.  The whole was conceived on the scale of the Goddess of Liberty but no detail was out of proportion.

Chopin's Barcarolle was richly colored and somewhat too heavily etched.  The Ballade F minor, No. 4, was sharply beautiful while the delightful Scherzo in B flat minor No. 2 ran like a heavy heady wine off the keys.  It was overpowering the satisfying.  I was forced to miss the performance of Liszt's Ballade in B Minor No. 2, which was the last programmed number.

Here is an artsit capable of firing the intellect and touching the heart.  And he does stir the pulses.

By SOUTHWORTH ALDEN




March 24, 1927.
THE MINNEAPOLIS JOURNAL

MUSIC
LIEBLING HEARD IN REQUEST RECITAL
Overflow Audience Hears Pianist's Contribution to Beethoven Fete

By VICTOR NILSSON

George Liebling, master pianist and guest teacher of the MacPhail school, Wednesday night gave a second piano recital by request, in the Unitarian church, which was filled to overflowing, with hundreds of persons unable to gain admittance.  In more respects than one, it was a contribution to the Beethoven centennial, celebrations of which will culminate in the Symphony Orchestra's program Friday night.

O. G. Sonneck, in his book, Beethoven, recently pointed out that between Beethoven and Liebling there stand but two generations, Czerny being Beethoven's piano pupil, Liszt Czerny's and Liebling Liszt's.  'In harmony instruction, Liebling stands yet a generation closer to the classical age, as Salieri, Mozart's bitter rival and Beethoven's last instructor, also taught the youthful Liszt, who again stood in spirit much closer to Beethoven than did Czerny.  Mr. Liebling's program and entire art as technician and interpreter bring these things to mind.

Piano teachnique has developed much since the day of Beethoven, with development of the instrument itself.  Mr. Liebling is not unacquainted with any phase of this development, as you occasionally can discern in his playing, but he is true to the ideals of his youth and his art above all is individual.

The opening number was the Bach organ prelude and fugue in A minor, in the Liszt arrangement for piano.  In its general outline and conception, it was a noteworthy interpretation, although for performance the recitalist only gradually worked himself into his best form for it.

He reached the summit at once with Beethoven's famous sonata opus 57, in F minor, which Cranz of Hamburg provided with the title Appassionata, that probably will forever adhere.  It is generally considered Beethoven's most perfect sonta, which prize really should go to his sonata opus 106, in B flat.  Beethoven has in his notebook written that the inspirations for his symphonies came to him from above, in the voice of a giant violin, but the outpourings of his heart came at the piano in an unparalleled line of sonatas which are an open book for all about his life's sufferings, aspirations and sublime resignation.  The Appassionata is a chapter of the same context as the will dedicated to his brothers, wrung from a soul in agony over the affliction of increasing deafness.

Mr. Liebling, in this sonato as in the Waldstein, most strikingly recalls Eugene d'Albert, but with a sobered and yet entirely poetic interpretation of his own.  Thus the tempo of each movement was established with absolute fidelity to beethoven's instructions.  Neither the first nor the second allegro was of exaggerated speed, and the intervening slow movement was a true andante con moto and not a largo as so many great interpreters make it.

The Don Juan fantasia by Liszt upon Mozart's immortal music was very impressively played also, but in the variations upon La ci darem la mano which constitutes the bulk of it, there was at times a speed too great for comfort.

By special request, Mr. Liebling included a group of his own compositions, which all were charming.  Most interesting was Study in double notes after Chopin's Impromptu in A flat, which evidently took its inspiration from the two part song form of the trio, for its genial and discrete elaboration.  Capital was the waltz, opus 73, not only as composition but also for the remarkably clean thirds which its construction and performance illustrated.  Toccata in E minor, opus 41 was in its difficulties so brilliantly overcome that Mr. Liebling as extra number had to add an octave study of strong chromaties, which again had to be repeated.

In closing, Mr. Liebling gave beautiful interpretations of the Chopin ballade in G minor and Andante Spianato and Polonaise, and as final extra number played the Schubert-Liszt Hark, Hark the Lark.





GEORGE LIEBLING began second American season with New York recital October 11th, 1925 at Aeolian Hall.  Plays own Concerto Eroica. Wins high praise.

First performance in United States made this an event of importance and to this the press comments were largely devoted


New York Times
The work is written by a mature musician. *** The first movement had a strongly marked and recurrent theme, *** the third introduced a characteristically fiery finale.  The composer was warmly applauded after each movement and twice recalled at the end.  Three small pieces, also by Mr. Liebling, dedicated to Ossip Gabrilowitsch and marked new on the program, served to exhibit another more popular angle of his musical fancies.  They had something of the Godowsky element in them.  They could have been labeled modern without detracting from their tunefulness.
Mr. Liebling closed his recital by playing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody, No. XIV with all the resources of a ripened technique.  Applause and recalls were rewarded by encores.—Olin Downes (10-12-25).



New York Herald-Tribune
Composer and Pianist Plays with Vigor in Performance Notable for Tone.
Concerto *** had effective passages, such as the pleasing melody opening the second movement and the brilliant polonaise of the third, giving ample chance for sparkle, dash and bravura.  Mr. Liebling played, as last year, with vigor and dash *** with brilliance in the aforesaid finale while Mr. Leonard Liebling gave a discreet, well-proportioned accompaniment.  While the leonine mood had been the salient feature of Mr. Liebling's playing last year, yesterday's performance was notable for the pleasing tone, polish and fluency of his piano and legato passages.—F. D. Perkins (10-12-25).



New York Telegram
The music is melodious, impetuous, romantic, romantic in spirit.  Mr. Liebling, being a pianist, is not ashamed to show his affections for Chopin, and many a rhapsodic page breathes ardent devotion to the memory of this master, Liszt.
Needless to say, Mr. Liebling's performance of his own music had the authority of authorship, as well as all the requisite dash.—Pitt Sanborn.



New York Sun
But what is more natural than that a pianist or violinist should yearn to express himself in his own idiom through the medium of the instrument which has become a vital part of his musical life.
*** Mozart and Beethoven, Schumann and Schubert, Chopin, Liszt and Rubinstein all liberated their souls by way of the keyboard.  Mr. Liebling had the urge.  He could not complete his musical life with the creation of the fathers.  He wrote his Concerto Eroico.  It is not obscure; it is not tangled in the jungles of modernism; it is not hostile to the piano; it is not radical in form; it is not without plain direct melody.  All these things it is not. *** The work is what the Germans call Claviermaessig.—W. J. Henderson (10-12-25).



New York American
The concerto, *** was a composition of rare beauty, constructed in a masterly manner, and should take an important place among the rather restricted works of its class.
Mr. Liebling's Eroico is a musicianly attainment.  It began with a brilliant allegro:  the second movement contained many measures of rare, romantic beauty, which both musicians invested with luscious, limpid tone, *** all of which carried a comfortable message to those who insist that melody is not old-fashioned, and that harmony is not out of date.—Grena Bennett (10-12-25).



New York Evening Journal
George Liebling looks altogether the virtuoso and plays like one—and this reminded us once more that the old school of piano playing was, and still is, invincibly good. ***
Mr. Liebling is just the kind of pianist who gets the spirit out of the music he is at, and gets it, moreover, with a spirited and rather exciting gesture. *** It bespeaks personality and it strikes you as fitting.—Irving Weil (10-12-25).





September 26, 1925.   Reprint from MUSICAL AMERICA
Liebling's Napoleon Piano Concerto to Have Its First Hearing in America
THERE comes a day in autumn when musicians—singers and pianists, violinists and tympanists, almost simultaneously, it seems—come out of hiding, shake the wrinkles from their platform garb and show the American public the fruits of their summer's labor.

Important among the early lessees of Manhattan concert halls is George Liebling, pianist and composer.  On Sunday afternoon, Oct. 11, he will cross the stage of Aeolian Hall, sit down on a shiny black stool in front of a shiny black and white keyboard and, for the first time in America, play his new piano concerto.

This work has for its theme the career of the first Napoleon up to the time of his defeat.  A heroic concerto, Mr. Liebling calls it.  He devotes the first movement to young Bonaparte, the Corsican soldier, the conception of his extravagant plans—Napoleon the dreamer and idealist.  The second movement has to do with his love for Josephine—Napoleon the man.  The third and fourth movements are Napoleon the conqueror.  Here he is at the very height of his glory.  The suggestions of the first movement are realized in the complete victory that is the essence of the third and fourth movements.  It ends with the triumphant Napoleon overlooking the world.

You see I leave him there, Mr. Liebling explains.  For the real Napoleon there is no defeat.  There is no place for humiliation in my concerto.  It is all glory.

I have played it in Munich, Vienna and Berlin, and in London with Sir Henry Wood and Sir Charles Villiers Stanford.  Now I shall play it here.

I feel it all very close to me.  I feel myself like the Napoleon I paint in my concerto.  I will not be conquered.  Why, when I walk on the platform I never think 'What if I don't succeed?'  I know I will succeed!  I plan to conquer.  The Napoleon in the concerto is alive in me.

In addition to the concerto, which will occupy some twenty-five minutes, Mr. Liebling will play several of his new compositions, things he has written since he came to the United States.

I shall play perhaps 'Ode to Spring' and my Waltz in Thirds, he says.  They will be something soft and delicate for the ladies who cannot understand my Napoleon.  Then I am no longer an aggressive soldier.  I am a ladies' man.

The rest of his program will be made up of modern composers—Walter Neumann, Paul Graenaer and Ludwig Schytte.

After his New York concert Mr. Liebling starts on his second extensive tour, which may take him as far west as the Pacific Coast.  On Jan. 17 he will play with the Detroit Symphony.


George Liebling, Pianist and Composer


Unlike most artists, Mr. Liebling looks forward to the time he spends on tour.

I like the train, he says.  I have time to eat and sleep and, strangely enough, I am able to compose.  I accomplish a great deal on the train.  I find my inspiration in the rhythmic revolution of the wheels.  I understand very well Honegger's 'Pacific 231.'  It is wonderful.  I find beauty in the motion of the train.  Again I am Napoleon.  I do not let myself be conquered by petty annoyances.

ELIZABETH ARMSTRONG.




Comments of Press of New York

New York Herald
Is a pianist of mature and powerful style, bringing all possible force to bear in the climaxes.  Softer passages were played with a singing quality of tone.


New York Times
He interpreted Bach with an authority; the Schumann Fantasie was nearer to the intentions of the composer than most pianists succeed in getting; the artist had the rare faculty of recreating the idea as well as the time of his composition.  In the same way Mr. Liebling succeeded in reproducing the refinement of Chopin in the spirit of his period, with rather more of De Musset than most players of the day care or remember to give him.  The pianist captured the imagination and won his hearers completely.—Olin Downes.


New York American
The Chopin Barcarolle and F. Minor Ballade were done with fine feeling and dramatic sweep.  The player's own very brilliant octave study and Liszt's B Minor Ballade closed the program with the usual technical fireworks *** —Leonard Liebling.


New York Evening World
Covers the entire dynamic field.  He ranges from the softest tone up to climaxes where he becomes the Thor of the keyboard.  He is a serious interpreter; everything with him is clean cut and precise.  One feels the pianist is getting at the real meat of the composition.—Frank Warren.


New York Mail-Telegram
Plays the piano with the highly exhilarating manner of one impetuously breasting seething and turbulent waters.  Moreover, Mr. Liebling is a Jupiter Tonans among pianists.—Pitts Sanborn.


New York Sun
All of his readings were marked by penetrating insight, poetic depth and originality of conception. ***
There was no moment throughout his program during which he lost the deep attention of his enthusiastic auditors.  He did some exquisite tonal painting in Schumann's Fantasy, and again in Chopin's compositions there were passages exemplifying beautiful piano playing better than which no one has need of hearing.—W. J. Henderson.



New York Tribune
George Liebling was the instrumental soloist at last night's concert at the Metropolitan Opera House, playing Liszt's E Flat Piano Concerto and a solo group which included his own Octave Study.  Vigorous and effective brilliance characterized his performance.—F. D. Perkins (11-24-24).


New York Evening World
Disclosed unusual powers and is convincing by reason of his sincerity, his deep insight and his ability to get at the composer's intentions.—Frank Warren (11-24-24).


New York Sun
George Liebling, the eminent European pianist. ***
Achieved a remarkably vigorous and brilliant reading of the Concerto.  He again revealed the talents of an artist with an impressive range of dynamics and a wealth of ability in tonal brilliance and technical achievements.—W. J. Henderson (11-24-24).



New York American
Sparkling technique and a dashing interpretation marked his performances, and he was received warmly by the audience.—Leonard Liebling (11-24-24).


New York Morning Telegraph
Had the regal roar, the clean-cut technique and the singing sostenuto in it that must be.  He encourages piano to talk and sing.—Theodore Stearns (11-24-24).


New York Staatszeitung
This pianist, whom Europe holds in high esteem as one of the few great, genuine artists, made a big impression on the large audience through his virtuosity, and was overwhelmed accordingly with all due honors. *** He is a creator of powerful ideas.  Had intensity and was of monumental masterful style.  Special praise is due his dramatic and rhythmic reading.  M. Halperson.




Effective brilliance characterized his performance.
Impressive range of dynamics and wealth of ability.
Encourages piano to talk and sing.
Dramatic and rhythmic reading.




Chicago Press Comments

Chicago Tribune
George Liebling, *** more than ordinarily popular hereabouts as a pianist *** In the best form that he has been in any of his appearances here.—Edward Moore (3-14-25).


Chicago Herald and Examiner
*** One of the most poetic of pianists, gave his third recital for the present season last night in Kimball Hall. ***
A gift for discovering the intimate beauties of such music: a flair for the delicate, the charming and the gracious.
A fine appreciation for tradition as it attaches to Beethoven's art ***—Glenn Dillard Gunn (3-14-25).



Chicago Evening American
*** A successful duplicate of his first appearance. ***
*** Fitting vehicle to exploit his infallible, his sometimes amazing technic, and his many-sided and individual interpretative talents *** charm and delicacy of his tone ***—Herman Devries (3-14-25).



Chicago Evening Post
There is a solid musical foundation to his interpretations, a structural sense which maintains a balance in the varying moods.  He brings out the contrasts with strongly marked colors and heavy dynamics, yet all governed by a feeling for the unity of the whole. ***—Karleton Hackett.


Chicago Journal
*** Talents *** are of the masterful order; they suit themselves to brilliance and to display. *** player's evident delight in poetic delay, insistently accented elaboration of detail, *** lent his music, as previously, a great deal of personal charm.—Eugene Stinson (3-17-25).


Chicago Daily News
*** Mr. Liebling brought forth poetic fancy and a brilliant technical display *** refinement of style, a lightness and a grace which fitted well the romantic and pastoral character of this sonata.—Maurice Rosenfeld (3-18-25).




Mature and powerful style—a singing tone.
Rare faculty of re-creating the idea.
Artistic sincerity—musical knowledge.
Softest tone to 'Thor of the Keyboard'.




Comments of Press of Chicago

Liebling Hits High Note in Music Fete
Devries Praises Work of Pianist


He is one of the most individual and arresting pianists in the field. ***
His touch, for instance, is remarkably modulated, caressingly soft in cantabile, ringing with power in forte passages, his phrasing is essentially his own.  The technique is memorably perfect, the runs amazingly crisp and fluent; the pedaling a wonderfully developed scientific adjunct to his many-sided art of shading.
His audience, soon realized that they were in the presence of an unusual, and extraordinarily gifted personality, and glady showed their spontaneous admiration. —

Herman Devries, Chicago Evening American (12-19-24).


There was firm grasp of the music with variety of shading in tone and color and dynamics expressive of the varying moods.  His tone was full and his fingers responsive to his will.  The melody he brought out with a singing tone and the bravura passages had brilliance.—
Karleton Hackett, Chicago Evening Post (12-19-24).



Arouses Enthusiasm

Another Liebling—the word in German means a favorite—came to Chicago Thursday night to show how well the family knows the piano.
Enthusiasm was the natural result of his performance.  There was in it tremendous glitter, spirit, a blaze of interest.  It was a display of brilliance—brilliance of finger and of mood, brilliance such as has long been absent from the city's recital platforms, brilliance run wild. *** —

Eugene Stinson, Chicago Journal (12-19-24).



High Score Made in Piano Recital By George Liebling

Performance was in several ways one of the most interesting of the season.
He continually evolved passages of quite extraordinary beauty, which is the chief end of technique.  He would seem to take an intensely personal point of view on his music, and without any seeming at all he has a fervid imagination.—

Edward Moore, Chicago Tribune (12-19-24).



Heard in Recital
Shows That He is Master of the Piano


He played the former (Waldstein Sonata) in superb style, interpreting the musical message in the serious, exalted manner that this classic required. *** a mastery of the piano. ***
It was playing of a gifted artist at its best.  There were suggestions of the style of the early Paderewski—

Maurice Rosenfeld, Chicago Daily News (12-19-24).



Wins Auditors By Recital

An interesting and inspiring pianist.  He is master of his instrument, a virtuoso, a poet, a man of individuality.
He is, of course, an infinitely better Chopin player than De Pachmann, let us say, and a far better pianist ***
He shares, too, De Pachman's velvet tone in singing passages though Liebling has far more variety of color, far greater imagination a technic of real virtuoso dimensions.—

Glenn Dillard Gunn, Chicago Herald and Examiner (12-19-24).





GEORGE LIEBLING, Pianist-Composer.

WITH THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Jan. 17, 1926)

Detroit News
Gained a celebrity *** perfect and delicate dexterity.  Instrument sang in a lovely lyric voice.


Detroit Free Press
Scores triumph.


Detroit Times
Made a great hit.


Sioux City (Iowa) Tribune
Of all the pianists Sioux City has heard, Mr. Liebling is the greatest.


Sioux City Journal
Seldom does a return engagement come to a performer in a single season.




GEORGE LIEBLING
International Pianist - Composer
PROGRAM
St. Louis, November 11th, 1926


I.
Fantasia, Op. 17. C-major (First movement)
Schumann


II.
Transcription from RIGOLETTO
Verdi-LISZT


III.
a. Berceuse
Chopin



b. Waltz, D flat
Chopin



c. Valse caprice
Rubinstein


IV.
a. Serenata
George Liebling



b. Impromptu on black keys
George Liebling



c. Vision: A Lyric of PSYCHE
George Liebling


V.
Second Hungarian Rhapsody
LISZT






Equally great with Orchestra or in Solo Recitals.  In Berlin, London, Vienna, Warsaw, etc., played the Emperor Concerto (Beethoven) and Concertos by Schumann, Tschaikovsky, Liszt, his own Eroica and others.  His Repertoire is immense.  Arouses Enthusiasm throughout his American Tours.



Liebling In Foreign Capitals Press Comments

Berlin: Tageblatt
He belongs as Rosenthal, d'Albert and Sauer, to the circle of Liszt's pupils and one noticed at his master-technic at once the great school.  He is a full-blooded musician, sparkling of tempermanent, who excels in expression and characteristic interpretation.  With Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13, finished in a tempo not to be believed, the concert ended gloriously and with many encores.—Dr. Leopold Schmidt.


Vienna: Neues Wiener Journal
A most interesting artist.  How delightful was his remarkable interpretation of Schumann's Fantasia * * * but when he played Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccioso, one surely felt the pianistic spirit of Liszt himself.—Dr. E. Biennenfeld.


Zurich (Switzerland): Post
His glorious technique and his inborn sentiment were amply testified in Beethoven as well as in Chopin and Liszt.


Bologna (Italy): Carlino
* * * a pianist of great race, of great style.


London: Times
He played Chopin's Ballad with unusually fine sentiment and very poetically.


London: Daily Telegraph
L. played the Chopin Polonaise with enormous success and had the greatest applause.  He had to give many encores.  His own piano-concerto comprises a highly strung and impetuous allegro, an andantino which yields a decidedly pleasing and graceful melody, and an extremely fiery concluding movement.  The work cannot fail to recommend itself.


London: Morning Post
L. proved himself an excellent Beethoven player.




pointment at their tardy arrival, I invited them to my hotel, (Reprinted from MUSICAL COURIER Weekly Review OF THE World's Music June 4, 1925)



AN INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE LIEBLING
I had met George Liebling, the widely known pianist and composer, a few times on different occasions, on the Continent as well as in the United States, had heard him play and had heard his works performed publicly, especially some of his operas.

I had observed the artist and the man, on the concert platform and privately, when he played, and when he talked to men and women.  Therefore when I was commissioned to interview George Liebling recently, I felt that I had an effective focus on his work and his personality.

This man, when he faces his audience, has the power to make them feel at once that he has something unusual to offer.  His glance seems slightly mystic, but the smile he throws at his hearers is undeniably genial.  When he seats himself at the piano, he is all intentness, concentration, self-effacement.

I asked the artist about his feelings on concert days, and he said: First of all, I eat very little before a concert.  Then I read a good book, like this one.  He indicated a volume of Prentice Mulford.  You ought to do that occasionally, too, he added with his whimsical smile, but I don't know that it would help your piano-playing—if you do play the piano.

Liebling speaks at least six languages fluently, but he can be silent too, when he is pressed to speak about himself.  I had heard someone tell about him that a lady once declared, I must have a lesson from you or I shall die.  I had to press Liebling hard before he said to me: The truth about that story?  Well.  I told the lady that to me death seemed beautiful, as I believed thoroughly in a happy hereafter.

Many experiences during Liebling's travels were extraordinary.  For instance, driving one night through thick forests in the far East of Russia and under a star-lit sky, he met with a thrilling happening.  In his characteristic, lively way, he told me: It was so cold that night, that my breath actually froze to the shape of a cigar.  (And I am a passionate no-smoker, he added).  Though I was wrapped up warmly in furs I felt the terrific cold more and more.  Suddenly a faint yelping sound became audible and it grew louder and louder and came nearer and nearer.  It frightened first our horses, then the driver, and at last our accompanying guard of Cossacks.  The cause of our anxiety was—a large pack of wolves.  We all carried guns which we fired constantly, killing many of the beasts.  A horse fell, and a Cossack leaped to the ground to cut the animal's traces.  The man was set upon by the wolves, our other horses suddenly shot ahead with the sleigh and we never saw the hapless Cossack again.

Also in pre-war days, my Russian friends loaded me with gifts, a way they have in that country when they wish to compliment an artist.  However, the most original present I ever received came from Australia, from an old musician, Josef Kretschman, of Sydney.  I never had known this gentleman, but one day he sent me his photograph, when I lived in London.  The picture showed particularly fine features, and intelligent eyes.  His best pupil, Miss Renée Lees, whom he had sent to study with me, brought me the photograph and four large Australian opals, with a flattering letter about my compositions, which he had used for years in Australia.  Kretschman sent me another fine pupil, Maisie Schell.  Both young ladies were excellent artists.  Among titled pupils I have had, I might mention Count and Countess Salburg, Countess Clary, Baroness Ungelter, His Royal Highness Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria (uncle of the present King of Spain) and the Persian Ambassador in Madrid, Prince Mirza Hussein Khan, who is a gifted poet, too.  I wrote some music to his verses.  I played at most of the Courts, large and small, in Europe.  On one occasion, in Algiers, I dined with the Emperor of Anam.

I suppose you have many valuable souvenirs and gifts

GEORGE LIEBLING.
 from those potentates, I ventured.  Do you like jewels, as so many artists do?

I rarely wear precious stones, Liebling replied, but my most cherished souvenir is the remembrance of the soirée at Osborne Castle, when I played to Queen Victoria, and was asked to write my autograph and a few bars of my own 'Suite à la Watteau' in the historic book of Her Majesty, which contains the names of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt and many others of the immortals.

Are you tired after a big recital?

Never.  The other day, in Chicago, some ladies came to my concert too late to hear anything except the final encores.  They had been in a train-wreck, thirty miles away.  When they visited the artists' room and expressed their disappointment
 at their tardy arrival, I invited them to my hotel, and played the entire program for them privately.

Could you tell MUSICAL COURIER readers something about Liszt, whose youngest pupil you were?

You would not have the time to listen to all I could tell.  Besides, I am writing a book about Liszt.  When it is finished, I shall send you a copy.

Who is your favorite composer?

Don't be silly, dear sir.  All the great composers are my favorites.  I do not try to specialize.  I love all good music too well for that.

You have conducted, too, haven't you?

I'm glad you asked me that, for it brings back some humorous memories.  Once, in a small town, I was in a hotel with the members of a French opera company.  They were terribly perturbed, as their manager, who was the conductor at the same time (playing the score on the piano in order to economize on the orchestra) had not paid them their fees for several weeks.  They had not even enough money to leave him.  On the day that I met them, the house was sold out and the artists had hopes to get some money at last.  But the manager-conductor disappeared a few minutes before the beginning of the opera and with him went the box-office receipts.  General despair ensued, until the whole company came to my room and asked me to save the situation.  What could I do?  I consented to play for them without a rehearsal.  I was manager, conductor, and pianist that evening.  The performance went off all right and later we all had a merry supper at the hotel—but at my expense, for the rascal who had stolen the receipts did not repent and return them.  A more difficult thing I attempted when I conducted the orchestra at the Theatre in Fuerth-Nuremberg, the opera on that occasion being Der Waffenschmied by Lortzing.  The conductor had become ill suddenly, the chorus master developed stage-fright, and so again without a rehearsal I undertook the risky task.  All ended well, I am happy to say.

I saw some portraits of Liebling and asked him if any of them were made by well-known artists over here.  Yes, he said, your famous American sculptor, Gutzon Borglum made a drawing of me while he was in London, and at present the Baroness Wenner of New York is painting me for her exhibition in Chicago next fall.

And what are your immediate plans?  I asked.

I am teaching a master-class this June, till August 1, at Kimball Hall in Chicago.  By the way, the W. W. Kimball Piano Co. is building six new concert grands for my American tour next winter.  I am composing constantly, and making records for the Welte-Mignon.  I am practising ten recital programs, editing music for some European publishers, correcting proofs of some works I have disposed of to American houses, orchestrating a new opera, preparing a series of lectures on Liszt and other subjects, and—

In other words, you have nothing at all to do.

Nothing at all, replied George Liebling, reaching for his pen.  I reached for my hat.

On my way to the door, I saw a framed program of a New York (Town Hall) George Liebling recital.  The paper bore some pencilled words across its face.  I read them, as follows: Listening to you play, I feel as if Paradise opens its doors, and lets me hear the angels sing.  Your admirer, Beniamino Gigli.

He was at my New York recitals, and sent me that, during one of the intermissions, said Liebling.  Who am I to say, ever again, that tenors are not musical?

Good bye, I called out.

But the lazy artist already was scribbling some oboe or double bassoon notes in his new operatic score.  INQUIRER.