When pianist Daniela Liebman sat down at our Steinway piano, she opened our afternoon broadcast with a rendition of Robert Schumann’s “Traumerei” that had us all in a reverie. (Listen to the performance by using the player at the top of this page.)
“It stays with me every time I play it,” Liebman said afterward.
This weekend, Daniela Liebman will be playing an even bigger piece by Schumann, the Piano Concerto in A minor. She’ll be joining the San Antonio Philharmonic at their opening concerts of the 2025-26 season on Sept. 26 & 27.
“I feel really lucky to play it here,” Liebman said, “because I think the way that it develops… reminds me a lot of nature, the way that it's orchestrated, and the way that all the instruments sort of interact with the piano.”
“There's just this open space where these instruments come out of this color that the piano and the orchestra help create, and then you have this clarinet and the oboe and the piano. It all just sounds a bit like a forest to me.”
The concert opens with music by San Antonio native Robert X. Rodriguez, at one time the composer in residence with the San Antonio Symphony. The piece is called “Tlaloc,” depicting an Aztec rain god.
“He manages to put a lot of things into seven minutes, including a fanfare depicting the rain god, then depicting people waiting for and praying for the rain, and then the rain coming, and then a celebration,” said Jeffrey Kahane, the Philharmonic’s Music Director.
Anchoring the concert are the “Symphonic Dances,” by Sergei Rachmaninoff, whom Kahane called “one of the greatest melodists who ever lived.”
Shows are Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Scottish Rite Hall. Ticket information is at saphil.org.
