Liana Șerbescu

Liana Șerbescu, born August 25, 1934, Bucharest (Romania).

Liana Șerbescu in 1968

Romanian pianist, piano pedagogue and musicologist. A pioneer in the field of women's music. Through her many-sided activity as a performing pianist, researcher and writer, she contributed to enriching the repertoire of the classic piano music.[1][2][3]

Biography

Liana Șerbescu was born to engineer Florian Șerbescu and pianist Silvia Chelaru-Șerbescu. Her mother's family counted several generations of musicians and composers[4][5][6]. Liana studied with several well-known Romanian teachers: Constanța Erbiceanu, Cella Delavrancea, Dagobert Buchholz and Silvia Serbescu, at the Bucharest Music Conservatory, and later with Guido Agosti at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Sienna. A winner of three National Young Pianists Competitions (1953, 1955 and 1957), she performed with all the Romanian orchestras. She has toured in France, Germany, the Soviet Union, China, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Norway, Sweden, Italy, England, Spain, the Netherlands and the USA, and collaborated, among others, with the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux[7][8], the Stockholm Philharmonic[9], the Zagreb Radio and TV Orchestra[10], the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Münchener Kammeroper Orchestra[11] and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (USA)[12]. Liana Serbescu played under the baton of Charles Dutoit[13], Vaclav Smetacek, Sergiu Comissiona[9], Erich Bergel, Lawrence Foster[14], Emil Simon, Renard Czajkowski, Daniel Chabrun, Eugène Bozza[15], Itay Talgam[16], Claire Gibault[17] and Mihai Brediceanu[18].

In December 1974 Liana Serbescu left communist Romania and, following brief stays in Norway and Sweden, settled in the Netherlands[19]. Following her illegal emigration, all her recordings were deleted from the Romanian Radio and Television phonoteque, and her name no longer appeared in any publication – not even in the monograph on Silvia Șerbescu by Iosif Sava and Florian Șerbescu. She worked for 22 years as a piano teacher at the “Brabants Conservatorium” of the Tilburg Katholieke Leergangen University[20]. However, her main activity was the promotion of the work of women composers. Her most notable achievement in this field was the first recording, on two CDs, of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's hitherto unknown Piano Sonatas and of the piano cycle "The Year" (1986-1987). In addition, she edited in collaboration with Barbara Heller the first publication of those works (Furore Verlag, 1989). Another significant contribution to the piano repertoire was Liana Șerbescu's discovery of Ethel Smyth's piano music at the British Library Manuscripts Department, that she subsequently recorded on a double CD by CPO (1995)[21] and edited at the prestigious publishers Breitkopf & Härtel (2001-2002)[22]

Liana Șerbescu With Sergiu Celibidache at the University of Mainz at his masterclass on Fenomenology, April 1991

In 1980 she performed at the Bonn First International Festival of Women Composers Clara Schumann’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the French conductor Claire Gibault[17]. Subsequently she often performed in Germany and the Netherlands with the Köln “Clara Schumann” Women’s Orchestra led by Elke Mascha Blankenburg. After the 1989 Romanian revolution she resumed playing in Romania. The composer Csiky Boldizsár greeted her return with the words: “After 18 years of absence, together we cheer: Welcome home!”[23]

Liana Șerbescu was married from 1965 to 1998 to the theoretical physicist Mihai Gavrila, with whom she has two children: Ioa-Silva Gavrila and Dariu Mihai Gavrila[19][24].

Repertoire

In addition to the standard classical and romantic repertoire, her programs often included 20th century music, for which she had a special affinity. Bartók’s Piano Concerto no.1[25], Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments[26] and “The Four Temperaments” for piano and orchestra by Paul Hindemith[27] were given their Romanian premieres by Liana Serbescu. She also premiered in several countries piano works by Romanian composers and recorded them for radio broadcasts. In 1976 she premiered in Osnabruck Alfred Böckmann's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.[28]

Music by women composers, spanning four centuries, had a special and consistent place in her repertoire. She played Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto with several orchestras, as well as solo pieces by various women composers, some of which were dedicated to her.[29]

Recordings

  1. Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Klavierwerke Vol.I –Das Jahr, CPO Recordings (CPO 999 013-2), Osnabrück, 1986.
  2. Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Klavierwerke Vol.II – Sonaten, Lieder, CPO Recordings (CPO 999 015-2), Osnabrück, 1987.
  3. Clara Wieck-Schumann, 7 Variationen über ein Thema von Robert Schumann, op. 20; - Romanze h-moll, Konzert für Klavier und Orchester in a moll, op. 7, Clara Schumann Orchestra, Elke Mascha Blankenburg, conductor, Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt – Deutschlandfunk, Köln, 1990 (MMS 9005).
  4. Ethel Smyth, Complete Piano Works, (CD I and II), CPO Recordings (CPO 999 327-2), Osnabrück, 1995.
  5. Liana Serbescu, Pagini musicale din cariera pianistei [=musical pages from the pianist’s career]. CD 1: Solo piano pieces; CD 2: Concertos for piano and orchestra, Electrecord (EDC 1089-1090), Romania, 2013.
  6. George Enescu, Muzică de camera de George Enescu în Olanda [=Chamber Music in Holland] (with Michel François, violin and György Schiffer, cello), Electrecord (EDC 1091), Romania, 2013).
  7. Liana Serbescu Compozitoare de-a lungul secolelor prezentate de — [=Presents Women Composers through the Centuries] (2 CDs), Electrecord (EDC 1106/1107), 2014.
  8. Silvia și Liana Șerbescu in concert (2 CDs), Electrecord (EDC 1108/1109), 2014

Publications

Critical editions of piano music edited by Liana Serbescu (first publications)

Articles

Booklets accompanying CDs

Contributions to lexicons of women musicians

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Joan Chissell (December 1989). "Critics' choice - the reviewers choose their favourite recordings of 1989". Gramophone (magazine): p. 1086. Liana Serbescu's caring two-disc dip into long-buried piano works by Mendelssohn's beloved elder sister, Fanny, is another refreshing change from standard fare, with the suite, Das Jahr (each of its 12 movements depicting a month of the year) and a Sonata in G minor as the most striking tributes to Fanny's romantic heart.
  2. ↑ Wadham Sutton (April 1996). "(review of) Ethel Smyth, 'Complete Piano Works' Liana Serbescu CPO 999 327-2 DDD". BBC Music Magazine: p. 73. ...the second disc includes the splendid, sub-Brahmsian D flat Variations (one of Smyth's finest works) and the skillfully constructed Preludes and Fugues.
  3. ↑ Simon Jenner (June 1995). "CD Reviews - CPO 999013-2; CPO 999015-2 Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Piano Works: Vol. 1 Das Jahr, Vol. 2 Sonatas Liana Serbescu". EPTA Piano Journal. 47: p. 41. ISSN 0267-7253. Serbescu makes an incisive advocate of these works, but "Das Jahr" and the g minor Sonata should be in the repertoire. Mendelssohn and her influence urgently need reassessing
  4. ↑ Cosma, Viorel. – Muzicieni din Romania – Lexicon, Vol. I, Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor, București, 1989, p. 233 (about Ion Bunescu).
  5. ↑ Cosma, Viorel. – Muzicieni din Romania – Lexicon, Vol. II, Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor, București, 2001, p. 126-127 (about Gheorghe Ionescu).
  6. ↑ Sava, Iosif & Șerbescu, Florian. – Silvia Șerbescu, Ghid Biografic, București, Editura Muzicală, 1976, p. 9.
  7. ↑ “La jeune pianiste roumaine Liana Serbesco sera la créatrice des “Jeux” de son compatriote Anatol Vieru dimanche soir au théâtre des Champs Elysées, avec l’orchestre des concerts Lamoureux” in L’Aurore, No. 9.532 , 25 avril 1975, Paris.
  8. ↑ “Dans le cadre du Printemps Musical de Paris, L'orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux, placé sous la direction de Daniel Chabrun, donne ce dimanche 27 avril [...] un concert. Au programme: [...] et Anatol Vieru. De ce compositeur roumain sera interprété pour la première fois en France “Jeux pour piano et orchestre”. Au piano, la soliste roumaine Liana Serbescu.” in L'Humanité, 26-4-1975, p. 13.
  9. 1 2 Leif Aare. – Eld och luft (Fire and air), Musik: Konserthuset: Torsdagskonsert med Stockholms filharmoniska orkester och kor; Dirigent: Sergiu Comissiona; Solister: Liana Serbescu, piano, in: Dagens Nyheter, 20 april 1974. Stockholm
  10. ↑ Zdenka Weber. – Muzika. Raskosna zavrsna slika; Simfonijski orkestar RTZ, Koncertna dvorana "Istra", 19. prosinca 1973,in Oles, p.15, of 9.01. 1974, Zagreb, also quoted by Romania Today No. 5, 1974, p. 49: "In Yugoslavia, the Romanian pianist [Liana Serbescu] rendered the Concerto No. 1 by B. Bartók, accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra of Zagreb Radio and Television, with admirable self-confidence and purity, with fimness and force, doing justice to the high level of the score."
  11. ↑ Karl Schumann. – "Das erste Sechs-Uhr-Konzert in Schwabing", Süddeutsche Zeitung, Nr. 248/43.W., 26 October 1974. München: "Das Orchester der Münchner Kammeroper spielte […] Die junge rumänische Pianistin Liana Serbescu prallte mit Energie, Treffsicherheit und kräftigem Anschlag auf Hindemiths halbprogrammatisches Klavierkonzert über die vier Temperamente. Sie gehört zu den Sattelfesten, die sich weder im Text noch im Ausdruck irren."
  12. ↑ Syracuse Herald-Journal, Oct 14, 1970, p. 47, caption under photo of LS: "Liana Serbescu makes her Central New York bow in a concert with the Syracuse Symphony Saturday at Baldwinsville."
  13. ↑ Grigore Constantinescu. – "Orchestra simfonica a Radioteleviziunii. Filarmonica", in Contemporanul nr. 1165, 7 February 1969, București: “[…]oaspetele concertului, dirijorul elvetian Charles Dutoit, este un artist care si-a cucerit in fata publicului bucurestean unanime aprecieri in aparitii anterioare[…] In același program, Liana Șerbescu a dat fermecătorului Concert pentru pian și orchestră in mi minor o dimensiune personală de sensibilă gradație lirică. Experiența muzicii moderne îi oferă Lianei Șerbescu posibilitatea de a nuanța muzica lui Chopin intr-o manieră care evită sentimentalismul, care tinde spre valorificarea purității melodice și elementelor de esență populară cuprinse în partitura abordată.”
  14. ↑ Dumitru Avakian. – "Dirijorul American Lawrence Foster", in Muzica, nr.4 (221), April 1971, București: "Am apreciat de asemenea justa coordonare a dinamicii în Concertul pentru pian și suflători, concert a cărui parte solistică a fost susținută cu nerv, remarcabilă promptitudine și simț ritmic, de către Liana Șerbescu."
  15. ↑ "Le concert symphonique de dimanche : Le public a longuement ovationné Liana Serbesco", Nord Matin, Valenciennes, 11 novembre 1969 : "Beethoven avait toujours une subtile sensibiblité; notamment nous avons bien senti cette douceur apaisante que le soliste impose au second movement [...] Eugène Bozza a assuré avec beaucoup de maîtrise la direction de l'orchestre."
  16. ↑ Emiliu Dragea. "Clasicul MOZART față-n față cu modernii". Adevărul de Cluj (5 octombrie 1998). Am admirat cu plăcere interpretarea dată de Liana Șerbescu (Olanda), Concertului pentru pian și orchestră de suflători de Igor Strawinski ... realizate de dirijorul Itay Talgam
  17. 1 2 Aad van der Ven. "Muziekfestival van strijdbare vrouwen loopt uit de hand". Haagse Courant (25 november 1980). Het was ongetwijfeld aan de [...] Franse dirigente Claire Gibault [...] te danken [...] dat het orkest in het virtuoze pianoconcert van de vijftienjarige Clara Schumann de formidabele soliste Liana Serbescu nog net kon bijhouden.
  18. ↑ Iancu Dumitrescu: "Rețineri" in Săptămîna culturală a capitalei Serie nouă Nr 67, 17 March 1972. "În aceeași seară, pianista Liana Șerbescu interpreta cît se poate de fidel Concertul de Schumann, interpretînd cu toată dăruirea, aș spune „cu fler”, într-un dialog plin de vervă. Împreună cu bis-ul – un fulgurant Mendelssohn – apariția pianistei a creat atmosfera elevată a unui rar moment de muzică, care merită să fie reținut. Factotumul din acea seară, dirijorul Mihai Brediceanu, a ținut să convingă [...]"
  19. 1 2 Radiodifuziune, Societatea Romana de. "Nascut in Romania - Liana Șerbescu". main.radioromaniacultural.ro. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  20. ↑ Theo Schouw (1997). Muzikaal kleurrijk en vol taal – fragmenten uit het leven van de katholieke leergangen. Tilburg: Fontys Hogescholen. p. 43. ISBN 90-5355-001-1. GROTE NAMEN: Het Conservatorium heeft opvallend vaak getalenteerde vrouwelijke docenten aan zich weten te binden, [...] de Roemeense Liana Serbescu, die zoveel aandacht voor 'women in music' meenam en onder meer werk van Fanny Mendelssohn ontdekte, ...
  21. ↑ Thomas Beimel (1996). "Ethel Smyth: Complete piano work". Viva Voce. 37: 28. ISSN 0939-8708. Liana Serbescu ist nicht nur die Transkription der Autographe zu verdanken, sondern auch die Einspielung der CD.
  22. ↑ "Neuerscheinungen". Viva Voce. 68: 35. 2004. ISSN 0939-8708. Auf diese Edition waren viele gespannt. Liana Gavrila-Serbescu hat beim Verlag Breitkopf & Härtel (EB 8168 und 8169) Sämtliche Klavierwerke van Ethel Smyth in zwei Bänden herausgegeben. [...] Diese Ausgabe ist insbesondere von grossem Interesse, als es von dieser Komponistin, die allmãlich einen erhöhten Bekanntheitsgrad erlangt hat, im Handel bisher nur sehr wenig brauchbare Noten gibt.
  23. ↑ “Glory of Romanian musical interpretation in the sixties, Liana Serbescu followed the brilliant career of her mother, Silvia Serbescu… Her performances of twentieth century music, both Romanian and universal, were unforgettable” (Cziky Boldizsár, in program notes to the Tg. Mures Symphony Concert of March 5, 1993).
  24. ↑ "Liana Șerbescu" (PDF). September 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  25. ↑ András Benkõ (1980). Zene Tudományi Írások. Bucharest: Kriterion. p. 185. List of the Romanian cities where Liana Șerbescu executed premieres of Bartók's first piano concerto from 1962 to 1974.
  26. ↑ Anatol Vieru, "Hindemith – Strawinski – Berg" in Contemporanul – săptămânal politic-social-cultural, 8 May 1964: "Concertul pentru pian și suflători al lui Strawinski e unul din roadele valoroase ale perioadei sale neoclasice. [...] Liana Șerbescu a redat cu forță și strălucire această desfășurare impetuoasă de energie muzicală, iar în partea a II-a a dezvăuit frumoase resurse lirice."
  27. ↑ Costin Miereanu, "Concertul Orchestrei Cinematografiei" in Informația Bucureștiului Anul XV – Nr 4617, 21 June 1968: "Cele patru temperamente de Himdemith (unde am putut aprecia contribuția sigură și tonul amplu ce caracterizează pianistica Lianei Șerbescu, solista acestei lucrări)."
  28. ↑ "En Gast aus Weimar: Alfred Böckmanns Klavierkonzert in Osnabrück urausgeführt". Neue Osnabrǔcker Zeitung (52/10). 2 March 1976. Die Uraufführung einer Neufassung des Klavierkonzerts des in Weimar lebenden 70järigen Alfred Bōckmann. [...] Die rumänische [...] Pianistin Liana Serbescu, kurzfristig für den zunächst vorgesehenen Solisten aus der DDR eingesprungen, loste die hochvirtuosen Ansprüche ihres Parts mit stupender technischer Zuverlässigkeit und viel Esprit ein. So erhielt die Aufführung frische Farben, Spannung und genaues Profil.
  29. ↑ Here are some of the piano pieces dedicated to Liana Șerbescu:
    • Joanna Bruzdowicz: Sonate d’Octobre pour piano, Tonos - International Editions GmbH, Darmstadt, 1981. World premiere by Liana Serbescu, Stockholm, March 19, 1979.
    • Barbara Heller: Sonatine für Klavier, ED Schott 20858, Bonn, 2015 (with a Preface by Liana Șerbescu).
    • Barbara Heller: Freude und Trauer für Klavier, Ed. Schott, Bonn, 2000. World premiere by Liana Serbescu 08.08.1985 in Bonn.


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